Dear Friend --
Imagine you’re an Oakland parent,
and you wake up one day to find your kids’ school is about to close.
It can upend your whole family life. Where will your kids go to school? What about the friends
they’ve made? How will you get them to a school way outside your
neighborhood every morning and still make it to work on time?
Thanks to a few billionaire privatizers, many Oakland
families are already facing this reality - and now the district wants
to close even more schools. But this November, we can stop them.
Help
put socialists on the School Board - become a monthly donor to East
Bay DSA >>
(This
is not the same as paying dues to national DSA, which many of you
already do. East Bay
DSA only receives a percentage of national dues,
but if you give monthly dues to the chapter,
they come straight to us!)
I’ve been an Oakland teacher for the last five years, and
I’ve seen the School Board let teachers and students down over and
over, falling in line with
the district and its billionaire backers, against what people in
Oakland actually want. The district makes BS promises that students
from closed schools will get first priority choosing new schools, but
it’s just not true. Families have to navigate a maze that’s impossible
to follow - which is especially hard when their first language isn’t
English. Meanwhile, teachers are left stranded, scrambling to figure
out where they’ll work next, and kids and teens have
just lost the teachers, classrooms, and friends they depended
on.
But this crop of School Board
candidates is different. Jennifer Brouhard, Valarie
Bachelor, and Pecolia Manigo are gonna fight like hell to make sure
the district listens to working-class Oakland, not the billionaires
and business interests. As
teachers and parents in Oakland Unified School District, they’ll bring
real live classroom, union, and parent experience to the School Board,
not just use it as a stepping stone for a political career. That’s why
East Bay DSA - and my union, Oakland Education Association - are
backing them all the way.
Help
us talk to every Oakland voter about these union School Board
candidates - start monthly dues to East Bay DSA
>>
Friend, East Bay DSA is the real deal. My
parents raised me a socialist, and when I went on strike with the
teachers in 2019 and saw East Bay DSA on the picket line at 6 am every
day, I knew it was time to become a DSA member. Our chapter is out there supporting workers
- not just us teachers but nurses, baristas, you name it. We put our
actions where our mouth is. As teachers, we’re exhausted, and it’s
hard enough to go on strike, or to knock doors for candidates every
afternoon after a long day in the classroom. I feel so
much solidarity and power we feel when East Bay DSA shows up, and it
keeps me going. And now it’s time to put that power toward fighting
for public education for everyone.
I just started my monthly dues this
week, and I hope you will, too.
Pitch
in now >>
Solidarity,
Jose Padilla
Prep Teacher, Emerson Elementary
School
Member of Oakland
Education Association
