Dear Friend,

As a kid growing up in the Bay Area, I went through K-12 in overcrowded classrooms, using old and broken textbooks, and being supported by hardworking but underpaid and overworked teachers. Almost 20 years later, those poor conditions are getting worse for schoolchildren in Oakland – and billionaires plan to profit off it by privatizing education. Teachers and East Bay DSA are fighting back, and we need your support. Pitch in now >>

Billionaire-funded groups like the Walmart Family and the Betsy Devos Foundation fight hard to get tax cuts for the wealthy into law – and you foot the bill when social programs like public K-12 are starved to pay for those cuts. The capitalist class knows this – that's why they've been waging a campaign of privatizing education in Oakland. They place puppets on the Oakland School Board who will shut down public schools for them. 

By installing charter schools, billionaires bust teacher unions and siphon money from chronically underfunded public schools – often ones that serve mostly Black and Brown students. Then, when these schools suffer, they call for their closure. The families subjected to this are forced to make hard decisions, moving their children to new schools that will be even more crowded, alienated from their friends and teachers, the parents knowing their kids' education is in jeopardy. But we won't let this happen anymore. Help us turn out in force for Oakland teachers – contribute to East Bay DSA now >>

Oakland teachers are fighting for their students, and East Bay DSA will be there to stand with them. The Oakland Education Association (OEA) went on strike in 2019 – since then, they've been able to win a deciding voice on the Oakland School Board, preventing the closure of five elementary schools. Now, Oakland teachers are bargaining for their contract, and Oakland Unified School District is dragging its feet to meet their basic demands to fund public education. Strikes work. And the teachers might have to do it again. If they do, we'll have their backs, showing up every day for 6am picket lines, bringing food and coffee, and more. Donate to East Bay DSA and help us support a unionized teacher force fighting for living wages, better learning conditions for Oakland students, and education by the public, for the public – not billionaires.

In solidarity,

Wesley Alejandro
Fundraising Team Member
East Bay DSA