News Flash! - No on N
Assemblyman Swanson joins labor coalition vs. Oakland's Prop. N
Assemblyman Swanson Joins Oakland Teachers, Labor, School Employees in Condemning Measure N
State’s Parcel Tax Scheme Harms Students, Oakland Taxpayers
No on N
www.OaklandEA.org
OAKLAND – In a news conference today, members of a growing coalition of Oakland teachers, labor, community and school board leaders joined Assemblyman Sandré Swanson in strongly opposing the flawed Oakland parcel tax on the Nov. 4 ballot, Measure N, that will hurt students, public schools and taxpayers.
Rushed onto the ballot by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell without community input, the parcel tax for teacher salaries asks property owners in Oakland Unified School District to pay about $120 million over 10 years after district voters already extended an existing parcel tax in February. Measure N is flawed because it generates funding for only OUSD teacher salaries – not for other vital school employees – and lacks accountability. It allocates 15 percent of the money to charter schools in what amounts to a blank check.
“Measure N flunks the test of common sense and honesty,” said Betty Olson-Jones, president of the 3,000-member Oakland Education Association. “You can’t help all Oakland’s public schools and students by letting charter schools drain away more funding. And you can’t keep asking taxpayers to make the investment in our schools that Sacramento should be making to be able to recruit and retain Oakland’s educators. This is the wrong plan at the wrong time.”
Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Sheila Jordan warned that it “makes no sense to put forward a flawed plan” like Measure N that creates long-term financial commitments with short-term revenues “There is no clarity on how the money would be distributed to district teachers,” Jordan said, “and the 15 percent allocated to charters is left entirely without direction.”
Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Oakland, also criticized the scheme. “Measure N was forced onto the Oakland community by the state superintendent of public instruction,” Swanson said. “There was no involvement by parents, teachers, or the community at large. Despite successful calls for increased local control, Measure N is a step back into state control, and that is a step in the wrong direction.”
None of the money would go to vital support and administrative staff employees, most of whom are represented by AFL-CIO unions working now to defeat Measure N. The unions and Oakland community leaders are working together on a better funding solution that involves putting a measure on the ballot in 2010 that would provide for all OUSD students and employees.
“Measure N may or may not have the best intentions,” said Sharon Cornu, executive director of the Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “But it's a punitive measure that fails teachers, classroom aides and the student success team. It provides too much funding for privatized charter schools at unsustainable levels. Oakland has done better for our schools in the past and we can do so again. Vote No on N.”
It’s an injustice for the parcel tax to only provide funding for teachers, said Jo Anna Lougin, executive director of United Administrators of Oakland, Local 83, AFL CIO.
“Schools are not run by teachers alone,” Lougin said. “If we increase funding to support our schools, we need to support every individual that provides support to the children, from the principal's office to the custodial office. In that regard, all of us are teachers, all of us support the children. Let's not be involved in divisive measures that divide the support networks for our students.”
Morris Tatum, president of the custodians’ union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 257, said, “Jack O'Connell needs to understand that more than just teachers work for the school district. Classified employees have not had a raise since 2000! Oakland voters just passed Measure G in February -- how can we ask Oaklanders to support another measure without involving the community?”
Mynette Theard, president of the Oakland Classified Employees Association (SEIU Local 1021), noted the irony that many of the school district’s support employees live in Oakland, would be paying the $120 a year parcel tax, but would not benefit from it and would be paying for a windfall for private charter schools. “The majority of classified employees live in Oakland. You're asking us to subsidize charter schools.”
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