Oakland Schools and their 'Bill For Nothing'

I've returned to the blog world from days spent lamenting the coming taxation apocalypse. Luckily, the turmoil in financial markets is providing much-needed opportunities to purchase stocks that one can hold for the long term, thus escaping Mr. Obama's taxation tsunami.

In my absence, the East Bay looks none the better, except for the nascent victory glow coming from Liberals who mistakenly believe the coming years will be brighter as a consequence of the coming election.



Amid this situation, I couldn't help but chuckle at the Oakland Tribune's "expose" on the profligate ways of the local school district. My favorite part of the piece was not the total of $840k which allegedly has been misspent.

No, it was the reference to the school system's purchase of documents from an attorney that were, according to the article, "virtually identical to forms ...  received from the city of Piedmont."

This might be the first time I've ever seen anyone doing anything with the Oakland school system mention the existence of Piedmont. That city's mere existence appears to be a pox on Oakland -- demonstrating that a school system with similar pay, similar weather and a similar location can do quite well, so long as it is blessed with better prepared students. And, by better prepared I mean those with families who prioritize their education.

I've railed several times about Oakland's unwillingness to bring together the best prepared students in the city into some sort of magnet program. To my knowledge, the school district still refuses to even consider the idea, sticking instead to outdated notions such as busing and "diversity."

Well, one careful reader brought to my attention that there is one school in the district making a stab at such a thing. I wanted to give it credit where credit is due, and I wanted to encourage the district to broaden its scope.

The program I'm referring to is the Paideia program at Oakland Tech. Several things stand out about this program. If you take a look at the program's website, you'll see that they actually publish their former students' colleges. That's very helpful information, as it demonstrates that the program has done an excellent job placing several of its students.

On the downside, the program appears only to have around 40 graduating kids per year. I'm certain a city like Oakland has 10 or 100 times as many students who could fit into such a program. Why doesn't the district set aside a school for this purpose? Everything I've read suggests they have plenty of extra facilities, considering the rate with which they've lost students.

Oakland Schools Busy Committing Suicide

Oakland's school board and state administrator must not be reading East Bay Conservative, because statistics show the district continues to hemorrhage students at a rapid pace. The district has lost 27 percent of its students in the past 8 years.

Rather than trying to figure out what has precipitated the decline, our school district has spent its time trying to deduce how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, among other critical issues. Here's an example:

[Staff] did make a distinction between small and "tiny." Staff defined a "tiny" school as one with less than 300 student....

Well good. Now that we've got that squared away, we can move on to other pressing issues like pandering to the teachers' union and how to keep failing schools "diverse."

Let me be very blunt here:

OUSD, it is time to get your heads out of your asses. The problem with our schools is that the focus is exclusively on warehousing poor-performing students rather than excellence for high achievers.

Like it or not, OUSD has performed so terribly that it is in a race for its life with expensive private alternatives. Parents are pulling their kids out and paying top dollar because there is no opportunity at OUSD schools. The students who remain are the underachievers, causing even more parents to withdraw their kids or move to other school districts.

OUSD must actually begin to compete with private schools. Here's the first step:

1. Open one or more magnet schools at each level (elementary, middle, high).


2. Make entrance requirements for the magnet 100% examination-based.


3. Commit to keep the magnet schools open for a period of no less than 10 years.


4. Commit not to dilute entrance requirements for the magnet schools at any point.


5. Set aside a separate pool of money for the magnet schools. Commit to fully fund that amount each year.


6. Select teachers for the magnet schools based upon merit.


7. Initiate a public-relations campaign to encourage parents to test their kids into the magnet schools.

My plan will draw students back into OUSD schools. It will create a virtuous circle, permitting the district to create different levels and types of schools which will draw high- and middle-performing students back from private schools.

Edit: Just wanted to note that East Bay Express also had a brief article about this problem.Let's hope this is the start of trend.