From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
ILWU Local 10 West Oakland Community Meeting Speak Out On Fisher A's Stadium Scheme
At a community labor meeting in West Oakland Speakers and community and labor people spoke out against A's billionaire owner John Fisher's scheme to build a new stadium on port property and with a hotel and 4,000 $1 million condos.
Also Democratic politicians Nancy Skinner and Ron Bonta have pushed state legislation to help the billionaire Fisher to raise taxes to pay for his development project
Also Democratic politicians Nancy Skinner and Ron Bonta have pushed state legislation to help the billionaire Fisher to raise taxes to pay for his development project
A community labor meeting was held in West Oakland on September 21, 2019, to discuss and speak out on the effect of the construction of a new A's stadium in the Port of Oakland on the community and workers in Oakland. The packed meeting heard about the effects of privatization, gentrification and how this will affect the. The black community and maritime workers. They also discussed the connection between A's billionaire owner John Fisher and the privatization of public education in Oakland.
Fisher and his family run the KIPP and Rocketship charter schools and the A's manager Dave Kaval is on the board of directors of Rocketship. The school board is closing public schools in Oakland while opening up more privately run charters.
The Fisher family have given millions to the California Charter School Association and are seeking to destroy public education while privatizing the Port of Oakland and building a stadium, hotel and 4,000 million dollar condos in the development scheme.
Speakers also discussed the role of Unite Here leadership in Oakland, the Alameda Labor Council and Alameda Building Trades leadership in supporting this union-busting racist privatization project.
Additional media:
Oakland Port Privatization, Labor, Gentrification & Racism: Report By ILWU Local 10 Derrick Muhammad
https://youtu.be/I1qTzwMNENA
Danny Glover On A's Stadium, Gentrification, Murals & Labor
https://youtu.be/1ku_c_SnoDI
Privatization, The Port Of Oakland and Labor
https://youtu.be/KH-ARujOeDQ
"It's Insane!" ILWU Longshore Workers & Truckers Challenge Oakland A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher’s Land Grab Of Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/5A8uZpqSX_M
ILWU 10 Speakers Protest John Fisher A's Stadium On Howard Terminal At Oakland Port Commission
https://youtu.be/t2oElKU9vPM
This Is Our Port-May Day 2019 Speakers At Oakland Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/Y_WQNoEj1cY
On May Day 2019 OEA Pres Keith Brown On The Stadium, Port, ILWU & Public Education
https://youtu.be/uZB-hG5hw0c
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
Schaff From Billionaire Stadium Rip-off Scams To Corruption & Nepotism-No Documents On Millions Of Oakland City Funds
Oakland's Promise Kept or Not?
The city council president's questions about college scholarship initiative come as mayor's initiative undergoes an internal reorganization.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oaklands-promise-kept-or-not/Content?oid=27574228
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019NEWS & OPINION » NEWS
By Steven Tavares
click to enlarge
New Oakland Promise CEO Mia Bonta.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MIA BONTA
New Oakland Promise CEO Mia Bonta.
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan continues to raise questions about Oakland Promise, the wide-ranging education initiative created four years ago by Mayor Libby Schaaf. After asking for a city audit of the program two weeks ago, Kaplan has pressed on, saying it is unclear whether individual savings accounts pledged by Oakland Promise for every Oakland student have ever been created.
The program seeks to boost the college participation of Oakland students and create a lasting culture of aspiration for secondary education. Schaaf's plan to seed academic savings accounts for Oakland students in grades K-12 is the underpinning of the ambitious plan. Last weekend at Children's Fairyland, Schaaf celebrated the dispersal of $500 savings accounts to 530 infants from low-income families as part of Oakland Promise's "Brilliant Baby" program. Three other programs within Oakland Promise offer aid to students through scholarships and mentoring through college, including the more widely known Kindergarten-to-college program, which pledges $100 per year in funding for college to every K-12 student. It is this program that Kaplan has been questioning for months.
Earlier this month, Kaplan sent a letter to Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby asking for an audit of Oakland Promise. "I would like to request your help clarifying how much funding has been allocated, for what specific purposes and programs, and to whom, if anyone, any funds have actually been distributed. If there is a commitment of future funds, to whom specifically are those funds committed, due by when?" Kaplan wrote. The premise of the audit also included a request to determine whether Oakland Promise employees were improperly gaining free access to City Hall office space and use of telephones.
In both instances, Schaaf's office struck back at Kaplan, describing her recent criticisms of Oakland Promise as political grandstanding. "Kaplan wants Oakland taxpayers to fund her petty political vendetta masquerading as an audit," Schaaf's spokesman Justin Berton said. "And tragically she's targeting the Oakland Promise — a program started by the City of Oakland to send low-income kids to college with scholarships and mentors. She needs to immediately withdraw this taxpayer funded political score-settling — because it hurts taxpayers and kids."
In an interview with KPIX last weekend, Schaaf called Kaplan "mean-hearted" for questioning the childhood education program.
Kaplan said Schaaf's office is obfuscating by not directly answering questions about the savings accounts and taxpayers' money and, instead, is resorting to personal attacks. "The people of Oakland asked me to find out where their taxpayer funds are, so I asked — which is my job." Kaplan said. "If the college savings accounts for each student have been set up the way they were promised, then just show us the documents and the inquiry will be over. If they actually didn't set up the promised accounts, then attacking people who ask the questions is incredibly inappropriate, as the issue really is — where are the college savings accounts? Who is running them?"
Mia Bonta, the new CEO of Oakland Promise, said creating individual savings accounts for each student — specifically for the Kindergarten-to-college program — is not how the program's accounting works. In addition, Bonta said, relevant documents requested by Oakland residents from the city showing expenditures to Oakland Promise cannot be produced because they don't yet exist. "The money is sitting in the city's coffers," she said. "There has been no transmitting of funds. The money is restricted by the city council."
More bluntly, she added that the monies have not been transferred because the "students are only in the second grade and obviously have not graduated from high school to college."
Bonta said she fears that suggestions regarding misappropriations of funds could undermine the work Oakland Promise is planning over the next five years. Oakland has allocated $1.1 million to Oakland Promise since 2015. "It's sad when you have politicians using their bully pulpit to cut down something without grounding that is good for kids, families, and the community," Bonta said. "I think it hurts Oakland. Is this about Oakland Promise, or something else?"
Bonta said she reached out to Kaplan several times in recent weeks to better understand her concerns about Oakland Promise, but the council president has not responded.
The program has clearly undergone a bit of a makeover in recent months. Bonta, who is also the president of the Alameda school board and spouse of Assemblymember Rob Bonta, joined Oakland Promise last May and was named CEO in July, replacing David Silver, who joined Schaaf's office staff. In the meantime, a number of structural changes have taken place. Oakland Promise merged with the East Bay College Fund and obtained its non-profit status. The program also is now overseen by a governing board that adds a layer of accountability, Bonta said.
In background conversations, a number of Oakland City Hall insiders described Oakland Promise's origin story as highly aspirational, but scattershot in its previous approach, lacking the technical know-how until recently to accomplish the complex goal of administering a cradle-to-career academic program.
Moreover, uncertainty over additional funding for the program exists in the courts. Last November, 62 percent of Oakland voters supported Measure AA, the 30-year, $198 parcel tax that proposed to help partially fund Oakland Promise. But Measure AA failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for passage — or so most voters and observers believed at the time. Piggy-backing on lawsuits contending that two San Francisco ballot measures only required a simple majority because they were initiated by citizen-driven efforts, Schaaf and proponents of Measure AA now contend that the parcel tax was successfully approved by voters. Last December, the Oakland City Council certified the results of Measure AA, but in April decided not to collect the parcel tax revenues this year while the lawsuit continues in the courts.
Fisher and his family run the KIPP and Rocketship charter schools and the A's manager Dave Kaval is on the board of directors of Rocketship. The school board is closing public schools in Oakland while opening up more privately run charters.
The Fisher family have given millions to the California Charter School Association and are seeking to destroy public education while privatizing the Port of Oakland and building a stadium, hotel and 4,000 million dollar condos in the development scheme.
Speakers also discussed the role of Unite Here leadership in Oakland, the Alameda Labor Council and Alameda Building Trades leadership in supporting this union-busting racist privatization project.
Additional media:
Oakland Port Privatization, Labor, Gentrification & Racism: Report By ILWU Local 10 Derrick Muhammad
https://youtu.be/I1qTzwMNENA
Danny Glover On A's Stadium, Gentrification, Murals & Labor
https://youtu.be/1ku_c_SnoDI
Privatization, The Port Of Oakland and Labor
https://youtu.be/KH-ARujOeDQ
"It's Insane!" ILWU Longshore Workers & Truckers Challenge Oakland A's Billionaire Owner John Fisher’s Land Grab Of Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/5A8uZpqSX_M
ILWU 10 Speakers Protest John Fisher A's Stadium On Howard Terminal At Oakland Port Commission
https://youtu.be/t2oElKU9vPM
This Is Our Port-May Day 2019 Speakers At Oakland Howard Terminal
https://youtu.be/Y_WQNoEj1cY
On May Day 2019 OEA Pres Keith Brown On The Stadium, Port, ILWU & Public Education
https://youtu.be/uZB-hG5hw0c
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
Schaff From Billionaire Stadium Rip-off Scams To Corruption & Nepotism-No Documents On Millions Of Oakland City Funds
Oakland's Promise Kept or Not?
The city council president's questions about college scholarship initiative come as mayor's initiative undergoes an internal reorganization.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oaklands-promise-kept-or-not/Content?oid=27574228
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019NEWS & OPINION » NEWS
By Steven Tavares
click to enlarge
New Oakland Promise CEO Mia Bonta.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MIA BONTA
New Oakland Promise CEO Mia Bonta.
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan continues to raise questions about Oakland Promise, the wide-ranging education initiative created four years ago by Mayor Libby Schaaf. After asking for a city audit of the program two weeks ago, Kaplan has pressed on, saying it is unclear whether individual savings accounts pledged by Oakland Promise for every Oakland student have ever been created.
The program seeks to boost the college participation of Oakland students and create a lasting culture of aspiration for secondary education. Schaaf's plan to seed academic savings accounts for Oakland students in grades K-12 is the underpinning of the ambitious plan. Last weekend at Children's Fairyland, Schaaf celebrated the dispersal of $500 savings accounts to 530 infants from low-income families as part of Oakland Promise's "Brilliant Baby" program. Three other programs within Oakland Promise offer aid to students through scholarships and mentoring through college, including the more widely known Kindergarten-to-college program, which pledges $100 per year in funding for college to every K-12 student. It is this program that Kaplan has been questioning for months.
Earlier this month, Kaplan sent a letter to Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby asking for an audit of Oakland Promise. "I would like to request your help clarifying how much funding has been allocated, for what specific purposes and programs, and to whom, if anyone, any funds have actually been distributed. If there is a commitment of future funds, to whom specifically are those funds committed, due by when?" Kaplan wrote. The premise of the audit also included a request to determine whether Oakland Promise employees were improperly gaining free access to City Hall office space and use of telephones.
In both instances, Schaaf's office struck back at Kaplan, describing her recent criticisms of Oakland Promise as political grandstanding. "Kaplan wants Oakland taxpayers to fund her petty political vendetta masquerading as an audit," Schaaf's spokesman Justin Berton said. "And tragically she's targeting the Oakland Promise — a program started by the City of Oakland to send low-income kids to college with scholarships and mentors. She needs to immediately withdraw this taxpayer funded political score-settling — because it hurts taxpayers and kids."
In an interview with KPIX last weekend, Schaaf called Kaplan "mean-hearted" for questioning the childhood education program.
Kaplan said Schaaf's office is obfuscating by not directly answering questions about the savings accounts and taxpayers' money and, instead, is resorting to personal attacks. "The people of Oakland asked me to find out where their taxpayer funds are, so I asked — which is my job." Kaplan said. "If the college savings accounts for each student have been set up the way they were promised, then just show us the documents and the inquiry will be over. If they actually didn't set up the promised accounts, then attacking people who ask the questions is incredibly inappropriate, as the issue really is — where are the college savings accounts? Who is running them?"
Mia Bonta, the new CEO of Oakland Promise, said creating individual savings accounts for each student — specifically for the Kindergarten-to-college program — is not how the program's accounting works. In addition, Bonta said, relevant documents requested by Oakland residents from the city showing expenditures to Oakland Promise cannot be produced because they don't yet exist. "The money is sitting in the city's coffers," she said. "There has been no transmitting of funds. The money is restricted by the city council."
More bluntly, she added that the monies have not been transferred because the "students are only in the second grade and obviously have not graduated from high school to college."
Bonta said she fears that suggestions regarding misappropriations of funds could undermine the work Oakland Promise is planning over the next five years. Oakland has allocated $1.1 million to Oakland Promise since 2015. "It's sad when you have politicians using their bully pulpit to cut down something without grounding that is good for kids, families, and the community," Bonta said. "I think it hurts Oakland. Is this about Oakland Promise, or something else?"
Bonta said she reached out to Kaplan several times in recent weeks to better understand her concerns about Oakland Promise, but the council president has not responded.
The program has clearly undergone a bit of a makeover in recent months. Bonta, who is also the president of the Alameda school board and spouse of Assemblymember Rob Bonta, joined Oakland Promise last May and was named CEO in July, replacing David Silver, who joined Schaaf's office staff. In the meantime, a number of structural changes have taken place. Oakland Promise merged with the East Bay College Fund and obtained its non-profit status. The program also is now overseen by a governing board that adds a layer of accountability, Bonta said.
In background conversations, a number of Oakland City Hall insiders described Oakland Promise's origin story as highly aspirational, but scattershot in its previous approach, lacking the technical know-how until recently to accomplish the complex goal of administering a cradle-to-career academic program.
Moreover, uncertainty over additional funding for the program exists in the courts. Last November, 62 percent of Oakland voters supported Measure AA, the 30-year, $198 parcel tax that proposed to help partially fund Oakland Promise. But Measure AA failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for passage — or so most voters and observers believed at the time. Piggy-backing on lawsuits contending that two San Francisco ballot measures only required a simple majority because they were initiated by citizen-driven efforts, Schaaf and proponents of Measure AA now contend that the parcel tax was successfully approved by voters. Last December, the Oakland City Council certified the results of Measure AA, but in April decided not to collect the parcel tax revenues this year while the lawsuit continues in the courts.
For more information:
https://youtu.be/aeokFkvs114
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network