Teachers in Oakland public schools are on strike for the third day on Monday, leaving children in the lurch — the latest example of a failing system propped up by the same political forces calling for “reparations” today.
On Saturday, Oakland hosted the state’s reparations task force as it approved demands for massive payouts to compensate black residents for a legacy of slavery, though California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state.
The demand for reparations was ushered through the state legislature, dominated by Democrats, in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. The committee’s recommendations will guide legislation.
Meanwhile, teachers in the Oakland Education Association — which has included reparations for slavery among its many strike demands — continue to deny students in the minority-dominated district a quality education.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Oakland teachers are continuing their strike, heading Monday to the picket lines for a third day after a weekend with little movement toward contract agreement, district officials said.
Before Sunday, the two sides had not officially met at the bargaining table since Wednesday, with Oakland Education Association officials refusing to negotiate, school board member Sam Davis told The Chronicle.
[D]emands include input on grant spending, a rigid process for closing schools, district housing for homeless students, reparations for Black students, subsidized transportation for all 34,000 district students and environmental requests including drought- and fire-resistant trees in future landscaping projects.
Only 20% of black students in Oakland met or exceeded state standards in English in 2022, while only 11% of black students in Oakland met or exceeded state standards in mathematics in the same year.
