I came to Sacramento with one promise before all others: to protect the health, education, and safety of our children.  Part of that phrase – ‘health, safety, and education of our children,’ implies the sacred promise that we as parents and community members make a promise to our youth: that we will do everything we can to equip them with the tools they need to be successful in an advanced technological global community.  When I was campaigning, it was clear to me that promises to protect and educate children were not being kept in Oakland.  

Our community has a long history of valuing education as the greatest example of American democracy.  It is one of the most important assets that one can gain that will ensure equality, economic security and success.  Yet for 3½ years now, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has been under the total control of the State Department of Education, while the School Board has been subordinated to an advisory role.  For years, parents, educators and students of the OUSD have been denied the ability to hold any entity accountable for the educational decisions affecting our children.  A true democracy requires citizens’ participation and input while holding those we elect to represent us accountable for results.  Yet the people of Oakland have not been given the benefit of any of these democratic principals.  

When I was campaigning in 2006, no other issue was more urgent on the minds of Oakland voters than getting back community participation and accountability in the Oakland Unified School District.  Who knows the needs of our children better than we do?  Who understands more personally than we do the effect of a school closure, of the punitive exit exam, of yanking arts education and athletics from the schools?  Yet, when the parents, students and educators directly impacted by these decisions plead and argue before the Board of Education, their appeals fall upon an incapacitated governing body.  Under State receivership, only the State Department of Education, via its designated representative, has any decision-making powers over our kids’ education.  Not the parents.  Not the teachers.  Not the students. 

It is past time that we—as a community—start the process of returning governing powers to our Board of Education.  In some regards, it could be argued that the community sprang into action immediately following the State’s takeover.  Since 2003, a new majority has been elected to the Oakland Board of Education.  Since 2003, the State’s own independent auditor has twice recommended that OUSD is ready to have some of its operational responsibilities restored.  In addition, over the last several months, I have been working closely with leaders in the Oakland and state educational communities, in response to the Oakland community’s outcry for relief.  A relief designed to create a structured and orderly pathway out of the State’s receivership.  That pathway is AB 45.