Improving Oakland Schools

Green Party candidate for School Board Vicente Cruz wants to focus specifically on improving schools in order to avoid the frequent criminalization of students in the Oakland Unified School District. A majority of students are living in an urban environment coupled with the common setbacks of welfare, homelessness, the prevalence of drugs, and general lack of resources, resulting in the consistent jailing and incarceration of Oakland youth. The current setup of the OUSD education system does nothing to avoid this, and in fact, is supporting the prison industrial complex by cycling Oakland youth continuously through the prison system. The loss of potential here to Oakland’s economy, community, and values is gargantuan. One of the direct changes that must be made is the removal of armed and uniformed police officers on Oakland school campuses. The officers intimidate students and foster the belief that the adults in their lives feel that they will inevitably commit a criminal activity. Another task that will be completed is the definite removal of military recruiters on OUSD campuses, as they purposefully target poor and underprivileged children in a type of “poverty draft.” There is a fundamental problem in having these recruiters convince poor students that the armed forces is their only alternative to jail. These young adults are not receiving the support needed to persuade them to further their education in junior college or university. The Oakland education system is in dire need of an overall renovation in order to protect our youth for the future.

OUSD Board Candidate People's District 3

Vicente Cruz II

Written by Amani Liggett

Edited by Vicente Cruz II