Strike Update 4/26

Only 3 in 10 kids in our city are reading and doing math on grade level. And, last night the Oakland Education Association (OEA) voted to take our kids out of school and disrupt their learning even more. 

I’m angry. I’m hurt. But I’m not surprised.

The strike vote was authorized last night — even as the district has 20% raises on the table.

OEA's decision disrupts learning for students who are already behind. It disrupts work for our families who are already struggling to afford living in this city. And it disrupts the work of the REACH. We can’t recruit new Literacy Liberators during a strike. And our current Liberators won’t be able to do their work tutoring students in schools.

I write this not just as the CEO of The Oakland REACH, but as a mom of a Black son in OUSD. I know education is the way to break the cycle of violence in our city, and the generational pipeline from our schools to prisons. Sixty-four percent of inmates can’t read. Every day of learning lost has a far greater impact on my son — on the Black and Brown kids in the flatlands — than their white peers. Why are our kids always caught up in the middle of every fight?

These excessive strikes keep reinforcing a broken system that not only allows us to go through decades-long academic failure, but ignores families who are working hard to change it. 

What’s next? We wait for a ruling from The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on the district’s request for an injunction to stop the strike. That request includes my statement and our petition. 

We will see if they actually listen to the voices of families and our community who are loudly saying “no.” We will see if they put our children first!