Comrade(s), Congrats on these efforts.
Think that reclaiming the commons <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons>(esp as regards education (the elementary school occupied in Oakland, in LA the Youth Justice Coalitions (brief) occupation of a closed library) is among the most important actions we can take. This, an example of reclaiming the financial commons. JAI RAC-LA On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 11:07 PM, Alexander Mejia <alexme...@gmail.com>wrote: > Hi colleagues, comrades, family and friends. > > I wanted to forward you the email below, despite its missing pictures, > that elaborates on the recent development in the struggle to defend and > rebuild adult education in the Oakland Unified School District. The fact > that the parents got organized with their teachers and other members of the > education community is something that has not been done recently in > Oakland, so it's an exciting development. > > Very interested to hear your thoughts. Please send them my way and let's > discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by the reflections below. > > Best, > Alex > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: classroomstruggle <classroomstrug...@gmail.com> > Date: Tue, May 28, 2013 at 11:12 PM > Subject: Update and Next Steps from May 22nd Board Meeting and Adult > Education Struggle > To: > > > > > Dear supporters of Classroom Struggle and Public Education in Oakland, > > We won $1 million dollars for Adult Ed! This is definitely a partial > victory, and we should celebrate this, since it was direct action and > leadership on the part of parents and teachers which won it. But we also > need to be clear about the limitations of every victory. > > Thank you all for coming out on Wednesday, 5/22. We have included a > detailed overview of what happened on at the school board meeting, what our > victories have been, the limitations of the vote taken on Wednesday, as > well as some directions for next steps. > > A few key points: > > - > > At the May 22nd board meeting parents, teachers and students were > united in fighting for a fair contract and against cuts (mainly to adult > ed). > - > > The board voted to maintain current funding for adult ed (due in large > part to mobilizations by adult ed students and teachers as well as the > outcome of the May Revise). > - > > The vote guarantees 1 million in funding of adult education but does > not guarantee how that funding will be spent. > - > > It is still possible that cuts may happen because of restructuring > by administrators or because school site budgets may not be able to pay the > contribution that is currently required of them. > - > > Going forward, adult ed students and teachers are continuing to fight > to make sure the program continues as it is and expands to restore the 90% > of this program that was cut 3 years ago. There is still work to be done > THIS SCHOOL YEAR. > > > We want to learn from and build out of the May 22nd board meeting so > please take the time to read the rest of this email to understand the > details of this struggle and contact us with any > thoughts/suggestions/questions. > > What Happened? > > The meeting started with a picket line and rally of hundreds of parents, > teachers and students chanting Save Adult Ed, Fair Contract Now and > Not One Cut! After 15 minutes of picketing outside, the contingent > marched inside and held a spirited general assembly with speeches from > parents, Adult Ed students, and teachers. Oaklands educational community > was out in strong force and electrifying what is otherwise an incredibly > dull business meeting (to use School Board Member Jumoke Hodges own > words.) > > After 30 minutes of public comment (only 30 people were allowed to speak > for 1 minute each), the last speaker was a CCPA adult education student who > asked that all of the adult ed students and teachers stand. These people > stood up and began to lead the room in chants. Over a hundred people stood > up, many different immigrant communities were present as well as a diverse > group of GED students in their caps and gowns. This image captures the > complexity of the adult education program and the campaign that was waged > to save the bits that are left of it and that will hopefully continue in > order to rebuild adult education to what it once was. > > After this striking moment the board went forward with its > business-as-usual proceedings. The dullness and lack of democratic > participation involved in this process led the vast majority of the adult > ed students, as well as many of our allies and comrades to leave before the > Adult Education agenda item was even brought up. > > We self-critique here for not having put forward a clearer tactical plan - > we might have, for instance, chosen to Mic Check the crowd at the end of > public comment and demanded that the Adult Education item, one of the most > important items of the evening, be moved to the front of the agenda in > order for the maximum amount of community members to be there during the > discussion and subsequent vote. We didnt do this, and the meeting dragged > on and many of us had to leave to take care of children, plan our lessons, > or get some much needed rest. This is understandable and we seek to > improve our interventions in the future. > > Ultimately the vote came up on the agenda. The chief financial officer of > the OUSD, Vernon Hal, was heckled when asked by the directors of the school > board, what do you recommend? People shouted - Do the right thing! > Make the right decision! The board clearly felt the heat of the > community. Eventually, they made a proposal (which is transcribed below > for you to review) which was voted on. They unanimously voted for the > proposal to continue funding for Adult Education to the degree that it has > been funded this past year. > > Our Victories > > This is clearly a victory in many ways. The adult education students > across OUSD who have organized themselves along with their Adult Ed > teachers and some K-12 teachers have waged a campaign that has been > challenging but effective. But it has been a campaign that has been > effective. Parents and teachers organized cross city meetings of various > Adult Ed schools involving parents and teachers of different racial and > cultural backgrounds. These first steps towards unity and organization, > across race, across parent-teacher lines, and between many different > schools are victories in themselves! > > In these meetings they collectively made decisions and built pressure > through direct actions that, in turn, forced the Board to take action and > concede victories long before the May 22nd Board meeting. One of these > victories was a meeting that was demanded through a written letter that was > brought to the board offices by a group of 30 adult ed students. The > meeting took place in the morning at CCPA on May 1st where over 125 adult > ed students attended as well as 3 board members. This was a huge > advancement for democratic control of our schools since many Adult Ed > students are only able to meet during the few hours of the day they have > free from work and childcare, at their school sites. The more we can do > this, the more likely decisions will reflect our needs. > > In the Board meeting itself all of these links we had built up became > fully clear. The rally of parents, teachers, and students was powerful to > say the least. Parents cheered teachers demands for a fair contract and > teachers echoed Adult Ed students and teachers demands to rebuild Adult > Ed. The unity and the strength was obvious which in no doubt contributed > to the Boards hiding away for 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the > meeting. > > The Limits of the Vote > > This is where we must be clear about the limitations of this victory. The > decision reached by the board maintains the current level of funding, but > it does not at all deal with the challenges faced at a number of schools > currently hosting Adult Education classes. For one, most schools are > required to pay part of the salaries of the Adult Education teachers, while > the other part is centrally funded through the OUSD. This functions as a > tax on schools in neighborhoods where there is greater need for family > literacy classes. Principals at the flatland school sites are forced to > choose between funding a family literacy class that will foster parent > involvement and funding positions like nurses, librarians, and other school > workers that serve children. This is the logic of austerity - choose > between parents and students - and its a logic which continues even with > this partial victory. > > The proposal also grouped funding for Adult Education with a number of > other items, of unclear significance. The fact that these proposals were > made without any attempt to explain their significance to the people in the > room, and without any agenda items to address them, further illuminated the > highly undemocratic nature of the proceedings. > > Additionally, theres the problematic nature of Adult Eds current status. > At present, there remain only about 10% of the classes that were once > offered to adults throughout Oakland. 3 years ago there was a massive cut > of 90% of the classes. Some of these classes included services for adults > with disabilities, career readiness classes, and other classes that serve > adults with particular needs. The ableist and classist nature of the cuts > to adult ed should be clear. Maintaining the current level of funding does > not deal with rebuilding these programs, which is why its significant that > so many of the adult ed supporters were not only chanting Save Adult Ed > but rather Rebuild Adult Ed. This begins to make clear what our next > steps are.... > > Where To Now? > > David Kakashiba referred to millions of dollars in reserves (due to > preparation for Prop 30 not passing) when discussing his motion to fund the > Innovation programs at OUSD high schools. This further proves what we > have been saying all along - the millions of dollars are there. The > question is: how are they spent? What are the priorities? We need to see > these millions of dollars as being the basis for the rebuilding and > expansion of Adult Education: reopening the 73rd Ave. campus, providing > full funding for all Family Literacy classes so that principals and > teachers are not forced to choose between funding programs for students or > for parents, and expanding the GED program to provide access at more site. > > Furthermore, we should see how to build with the teachers demands as > well. Teachers have suffered 13 years without a pay raise. They are the > lowest paid in Alameda County. Probably many of us heard testimonies of > Oakland teachers saying its too hard to stay in the district with the pay > as low as it is, especially considering the much harder teaching conditions > than in, say, Walnut Creek. All of this is to say parents and teachers > have many reasons to build together, and Adult Ed supporters and K-12 > supporters--often the same people!--have many reasons to build together. > We should talk with our allies in our school and when actions come up to > support each other, we should organize our allies to come with us. > > Another step we should take is directly related to the anti-democratic > nature of Board meetings. Earlier we noted how Adult Ed students and > teachers were able to force Board members to meet in our schools during the > day when we were actually available. We should push that the actual > decisions of the Board are made in these meetings. After all, most > decisions the Board passes on Wednesday night meetings are not actually > made in the Board room. The decisions are made behind the scenes long > before the meetings. Those night meetings are only rubber stamps on > pre-determined votes. We should acknowledge this and push these decisions > out into the open in meetings attended by and run by Oakland parents, > teachers, and students. > > But how do we get them to do this? The same way we got the > precedent-setting meeting on May 1st. We do direct actions such as marches > on admin offices, sit-ins, all the way up to student walkouts and parent > and teacher strikes. All of these actually build our power and > organization and show the Board they cannot ignore us. That is how can > move beyond semi-victories to full victories that we can actually > enforce--because a major part about winning a vote is making sure its > actually implemented! > > This brings us to our final point. We must organize for power. During > the Board meeting we passed out a flyer basically saying we need one thing, > to stay organized. That might seem overly simple, but in a complicated > world its the most sure thing we can do. We cannot predict how this Board > vote will actually play out in detail. We cannot predict if the District > might try to close another 5 schools in the next years. We cannot predict > what the state budget will look like in 5 years from now, by which time > its very likely that another recession might have hit us. This time > around the state budget worked somewhat in our favor but that doesnt mean > that it always will and it doesnt change the fact that the wealthy have > gotten much richer and the poor much poorer, meaning theres much more we > can achieve. > > All of this is to say, with the future uncertain as it is we need to > continue to build our own organization and power. These are the largest > victories of this struggle. And we should see these gains as far from > finished. We can build much more. > > Concretely there is a meeting scheduled with all of the adult education > students and teachers in order to celebrate what has been accomplished so > far and plan out next steps. We still need to pressure the district in > order to centrally fund these classes so that none of them are cut due to > the school site not wanting to fund these classes out of their own budgets. > We will work to maintain the pressure around this demand for the rest of > the school year and will need the support of teachers, students and > community members. > > Please stay in contact about how this develops over the following days and > weeks. We will send out an update after the meeting with adult ed students > and teachers about support that is needed and ways to contribute. > > A major slogan that adult ed students have used throughout this campaign > (and has been used through history) is La union hace la fuerza/Unity > makes strength. We value your support and hard work. Keep building with us, > we have a lot more to win. > > In struggle, > ClassRoom Struggle. > > > -- JAI RAC-LA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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