Urgent Actions for Oakland Schools

Hello Friends,

We are at a crossroads in stopping the closure of schools and getting
back local control for Oakland. The good news is we have a bill to
return local control (AB 45), in the state assembly and it looks like
it may pass. However the work to stop the school closures is at a
turning point with only a month and a half before closure, we are
bringing our resolution for a moratorium on closures to the school
board and we are turning up the heat on State education official Jack
O'Connell. Education Not Incarceration needs your support to raise
$5,000 over the next month to keep our office running as we build our
campaign to prevent students from being pushed out of school and into
prison in Oakland and nationwide.

To donate go to: http://www.ednotinc.org/getinvolved/donate.html

The State believes they can save money at the expense of our children,
but what the economics of school closures fail to factor is the
enormous amount of money spent on students pushed out of school onto
the street and into prison. California legislatures just pushed
through legislation in 24 hours with no public input to spend at least
$7.4 billion of our taxes to build 53,000 new prison beds.

In this email you'll find
1) Our demands
2) Two stories about why closures are hurting Oakland students,
3) 4 actions and events to stop the closures and get back local control
4) 4 facts on closures and local control.

Thanks for all your support,
Nuri Ronaghy
Executive Director
Jonathan Stribling-Uss
ENI Grassroots Campaigns

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Our Demands

1) Return full local control to Oakland schools
2) Moratorium on all school closures
3) Redirect our state taxes from prison building to school funding

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The Story on School Closures:

Dr. Kim Statham, the unelected state administrator is targeting four
schools with closure. One of these schools is Sherman Elementary
targeted with closure due to low enrollment. The closure will cause
chaos in student's lives and lead to lower enrollment in Oakland
public schools. Many of Oakland's children face challenging life
conditions outside of school, making schools feel like their only
source of stability. One student at Sherman told us that the closure
of his school made him feel "like my feet are being taken out from
underneath me." The economic calculation fails to factor the costs of
closing schools and keeping them secure, the losses of revenue from
students leaving the district do to lack of local control or lowered
attendance as most students do not attend school as regularly if they
have to walk a mile or more to their new schools

Dr. Kim Statham is targeting East Oakland Community High with closure
because of low-test scores. However, test scores are not a good
measure of a student's knowledge. Study after study has shown that
High stakes test scores correlate to the linguistic, economic, and
ethnic makeup of a student body not the quality of education being
provided. What the tests fail to explain is that many of the East
Oakland Community High Students were failing before coming to E.O.C.
have become successful students. For example, Lory, was failing out of
high school before entering the supportive and caring atmosphere at
E.O.C., where "teachers give me their cell phone numbers." Lory is now
passing and is enjoying school. She is learning about math, science
and English but also taking classes at SF State, rallying for
immigrant rights, tutoring at a nearby middle school, interning at
real workplaces in the community (like the office of Education Not
Incarceration).


We need everyone to take action to keep schools open and get back
local control for Oakland.
It is very urgent; Schools are targeted for closure next month and the
local control measure is currently in the State congress.

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TAKE ACTION:

A) We need $5000 to maintain our campaign
We need you to become a member of ENI and give what ever you can to
raise our goal:

$1000 pays an organizer for two weeks in the communities most affected
by closures
$500 covers part the cost of rent for our office.
$250 give us all the out reach handouts for our campaign.
$120 pays for a lobby trip to Sacramento for organizers and community
members.
$60 gives us the funds to go to San Jose and pressure Jack O'Connell
about local control.
$25 gives us the ability to keep our website updated for 1 week.
$10 gives us enough for handouts for 3 days of organizing.
To donate go to:

http://www.ednotinc.org/getinvolved/donate.html

Or send a check to:

Education Not Incarceration
3280 Morcom Ave, Oakland, Ca 94619

B) We have three critical events coming up:

2) Thurs 17th at 12pm at the National Hispanic University 14271 Story
Road,
San Jose, CA 95127-3823

Jack O'Connell is speaking. He could sign over local control and stop
the closures with the stroke of a pen. We need community members to
join us in telling him how we need him to stop closures and give back
local control of our schools now! RSVP to ednotinc [at] riseup.net

3) Wed 23rd of May At 4:30-6pm At 1025 2nd Ave, Oakland

We are getting the moratorium on school closures introduced and
pressuring the school board to vote in favor of it. This is the most
critical event where we need the most people to turn out to.

4) Friday June 1st from 4-6pm At 1025 2nd Ave, Oakland

Public Hearing where we will be telling all elected officials in
Oakland from the federal Congress people to the local school board how
badly the school closures impact our communities and how local control
is something our community and our children deserve.
Co-sponsored By the Oakland Education Association and ACORN

C) Keep the Pressure on Jack O'Connell and State Senator Don Perata.
Call or email with our demands
1) Return full local Control to Oakland schools
2) Moratorium on all school closures
3) Redirect our state taxes from prison building to school funding

Don Perata
Phone # (510) 286-1333
Email: Senator.Perata [at] sen.ca.gov,

Jack O'Connell
Phone # 916-319-0800
Email: joconnell [at] cde.ca.gov

D) Let others know: Forward this to friends, co-workers, and
classmates.
And go to our website and download the handout about local control

http://www.ednotinc.org/campaigns/localcontrol/LocalControlFlyer-4.17.07.pdf

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Facts on Closures and Local Control

1) 42 of the 98 schools in Oakland have been closed and/or reopened as
new schools since the State took over Oakland Public Schools. Yet
under the District's small schools policy, elementary schools should
have no more than 350 students. To fully implement that policy,
Oakland would need 72 elementary schools. There are currently 61
Oakland Elementary Schools.

2) The schools targeted for closure since the State Takeover of
Oakland schools have been primarily in low-income predominately
African-American and Latino communities, who are already being
under-served by California's schools. Right now over 70% of Oakland
students are pushed out of school prior to graduation.

3) This policy of closures and takeover violates the States own
findings. Getting Down to Facts, "The $3 million year long study
commissioned by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic
lawmakers and state Superintendent Jack O'Connell relies on the
research of more than 30 experts. It says two changes are essential to
improving student achievement:
-Schools with high-needs students require a lot more money.
-Local education officials -- not the state -- need to decide how that
money is spent."
"School study calls for cash, local control" SF Chronicle March 16,
2007

4) The decisions to close schools have been made in opposition to the
democratically elected Oakland Mayor and without oversight of the
democratically elected school board


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BECOME A MEMBER OR DONATE TO EDUCATION NOT INCARCERATION:
http://ednotinc.org/getinvolved/donate.html

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