The role of charter schools in public education was a hot topic Thursday at the Oakland Education Forum, which drew more than 50 educators, parents and concerned residents at the newly built 81st Avenue Branch Library.
The daylong forum, hosted by the Oakland Tribune, the Bay Area Business Roundtable and the Prescott Joseph Center, centered around four distinct areas: the role of charter schools in K-12 education, the future of regional higher education, and with a crippling $26 billion budget shortfall looming, the role of the private sector and philanthropic organizations in continued education funding across the state.
An afternoon session focused on the question of what is working.
A lively panel discussion on the role of Oakland's more than 30 charter schools dominated the morning session. Charter schools use public funds, are non-unionized and have fewer rules. Some have gained national recognition for their success in producing quality education and high numbers of university-bound graduates. But their prevalence in Oakland has also caused concern among many who see their growth as unfair competition to a poorly funded and overstressed public school system.
"Charter schools are like people. Some are good, some are great and some are bad and should be closed," said James Willcox, CEO of Aspire, a California network of charter schools. "We look at ourselves as a small player on a big team."
But Betty Olson-Jones, president of the Oakland Education Association, declared herself "not a fan" of charter schools, and blamed them in part for diverting attention away from a much-needed discussion about how to address systemic changes that would benefit all students, particularly African-American and Latino students who generally fare worse on test scores, graduation rates and basic proficiency scores than their white peers.
"Charter schools tend not to be equitable," she said. "By law they can't discriminate, but they find ways to do so."
Longtime Oakland activist Oscar Wright, 87, said it's critical for the school district to give students the same opportunities regardless of their race and background.
"We need to level the playing field," he said.
However, there is compelling evidence that charter schools, when run properly, can excel where other schools may not. Steve Sexton, founder of East Oakland's Lighthouse Community Charter School, pointed to a recent graduating class from which 95 percent went on to a four-year university. Of those, 84 percent are still enrolled -- a statistic that bucks the state average by a large margin. Sexton argued that the welfare of charter students rested on his shoulders, which gave him an added responsibility.
"If I do my job poorly, I don't exist, and if I'm not doing my job, I shouldn't exist," he said.
Perhaps the most pressing issue for Oakland's educators is how best to address the so-called "achievement gap" between the city's white students, who perform consistently well on standardized tests, and its African-American and Latino students who don't, according to data presented by Arun Ramanathan, a Harvard-educated director of The Education Trust -- West, which advocates for resources to address the needs of students of color.
Ramanathan pointed out that while the achievement gap in Oakland has been steadily decreasing, it is still larger than the state average. The trust recently issued a "report card" in which Oakland scored an F on the gap. In the category of "improvement," however, it earned a B, indicating that recent efforts to address the needs of more students with less money may in fact be working.
"The diversity of our district can pose challenges," he said. "But it can also have benefits in terms of economic growth."
The grim state of K-12 education spills over into higher education, as well. One-third of incoming college students need remedial education courses, according to recent data.
"Forty percent of our students are unprepared for college-level work," said Elnora Webb, president of Laney College. Webb said she has undertaken measures to do away with remedial course work and "embed" more basic skills into college-level work in the hopes of raising the bar. "Remediation is an efficient way of keeping people stuck."
California's budget problems loomed large over all the panels. At Laney College, Webb said she is being forced to "artificially constrain" admissions to cut enrollment by some 3,000 students next year, and that the Peralta Community College District, of which the college is a part, faces a $21 million budget cut, roughly 10 percent of the overall budget. K-12 education faces a similar crisis. One recent study estimated that some districts could face up to $900 in losses per student per year.
"It's an extraordinary loss for students," Ramanathan said.
George Khaldun, chief operating officer for the Harlem Children's Zone, an organization that has been held up as a national model for education reform, spoke at the event.
He said the Harlem program works closely with kids from preschool through college. Counselors call students twice a month to make sure they are on track to earn their degrees. They have 640 students in college now whom they are tracking.
While the program is well-funded, Khaldun said, "It's not the money," he said, "it's the passion."
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