Education
On March 4, hundreds of protesters marched from Berkeley to Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland to rally with students and educators from across the region. After the rally, a group of some 150 protesters marched onto the I-880 freeway, shut down traffic and were arrested by police. Some reporters got the story — but four of them, including Oakland North correspondent Jake Schoneker, got arrested. Schoneker shares his account of the day, in pictures and words.
In addition to the several hot issues on the agenda, each of which pulled in a crowd, representatives from four Oakland public schools that have just been listed on the state’s lowest-performing schools list came to the meeting to state their disagreement with the listing.
First it was chants of “O-T, O-T” that echoed throughout the Laney College gym Saturday. The happy players and coaches of Oakland Tech were celebrating their Oakland Athletic League girls basketball championship, a 72-42 win over Skyline High. A couple hours later, that scene was repeated. This time, it was chants of “Cas-tle, Cas-tle,” as the Castlemont High boys team celebrated its 67-65 win over Oakland High.
The Street Style/Dream Seam School of Fashion gives Oakland teens a place to sketch, knit, sew and be around other creative people while learning about the ins and outs of the art and fashion scenes.
On March 4, students and educators throughout California will demonstrate against state budget cuts that have slashed finances at public schools and raised student fees throughout the UC system. Oakland North presents a special news package, with all-day, three-city coverage of the protests and the story behind them.
Protests against budget cuts to education are attracting student activists from around the globe. Ten Japanese students were among those that attended the March 4 protests.
While nearly 2,000 people were protesting cuts to higher and K-12 education on the Oakland streets, most Oakland Tech students were in class. Those that stayed – including one particular Spanish class – got a lesson about California’s funding crisis.
Students at Oakland Technical High School participated in a “disaster drill” to draw attention to the state of emergency of education as part of the March 4th Day of Action
From Berkeley to the 880 Freeway, students and other community members joined a march to fight for public education and against the state budget cuts.