TOUGH CHOICES

Randolph Ward came to the Greater Mandana Action Coalition meeting the other night and patted his own back as the guy who's had the courage and the cojones to make the "tough choices" to reform the Oakland Unified School District, adding more than a minor implication that Oakland school stewards in the recent past have not displayed such leadership. Wrong on both counts, Mr. Ward. But we'll get back to that point in a bit.
     
Watching him work the GMAC crowd, one can easily see why Dr. Ward was picked by State Superintendent Jack O'Connell to be the overseer of the Oakland schools. He's had a lot of practice at it, after all, this job of running schools without having to answer to local control, and after some seven years of it down in Compton, he knows pretty much what to say, and what to leave out. Dr. Ward approaches his public performances as part Tony Robbins-type motivational faith healer ("we can do it!") and part stump politician ("I can do it!"), and the performance is so mesmerizing that one is almost tempted to refrain from spoiling the overall effect by digging into the details of exactly what "it" it is to which the good doctor refers. Still, having paid for our tickets and been promised a magic show in which a woman is sawed in half, it does not seem out of the way to politely request if there is still any intent to put her back together again.
 
As always, a history lesson is in order, even if it is only recent history.
    
The State of California seized control of the Oakland public schools last year, we are told, after the state floated us a $100 million line of credit because we were running out of money. Why we were running out of money, how much money we were running out of, and whether or not we actually needed a $100 million line of credit from the State of California are still open questions, and subject to debate. Embedded in the law authorizing the school takeover, however, the state legislature did make two things pretty clear: One) "While in need of a loan from the State of California, there have not been any accusations of intentional mismanagement or fraud in the Oakland Unified School District." And, two) "Despite its financial condition, the Oakland Unified School District has made demonstrable academic improvements over the last few years, witnessed by test score improvements, more fully credentialed teachers in Oakland classrooms, and increased parental and community involvement."
      
And, so, since we were told, many times, that the takeover had nothing to do with academic achievement or school conditions, but only came about because of the loan, Oaklanders had every right to believe that we would regain control of our schools somewhere around the time the money was paid back, or well on its way thereto.
 
Last June, when he introduced us to the man who would be running our schools, State Superintendent O'Connell announced that "I've asked him [Ward] to put himself out of business as quickly as possible." On that same day, Dr. Ward indicated that he was in complete agreement. "The idea here is to work myself out of a job," he told a reporter from the Chronicle. "It's to put in the checks and balances, both fiscally and academically, but we're not interested in keeping control. We understand there are very capable and caring people who can do that, and the idea is to give the district back to them as soon as possible." Fair enough.
   
So one would think, in his presentation to the folks at GMAC, Dr. Ward might talk about how soon that soon might be, and what plans he had to bring it about. If he did, I missed that part. In fact, Dr. Ward doesn't seem all that interested in balancing Oakland's school budget. As soon as he took office, Dr. Ward rejected a plan put together by former Superintendent Dennis Chaconas and the School Board to balance the school district's budget. (For those who don't follow economics that much, if you have to take a loan because you're spending more than you're taking in, and if you continue to spend more than you're taking in, then eventually going to run through the loan money, too, and you're going to be worse off, than ever before.) We now learn through the Tribune that Dr. Ward is purposely going to operate the Oakland Unified School District at least $20 million in the red this year, which is an interesting action by someone who was hired to correct inadvertent overspending.

Asked by the Tribune why he did not think following Chaconas' and the School Board's plan for a balanced budget was all that important, Dr. Ward said "They cut too far." That opinion (not balancing the school budget) was shared by a representative of the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), who said, well, "Last year, the focus in this district was 'Let's not get a state loan.'" As if that were a bad thing, both avoiding a state loan, and balancing a budget. FCMAT, one might remember, was brought into Oakland because our budget was out of balance. So why was overspending so godawful when Oakland was running its own schools, but not nearly so important now that the state has seized control?
       
Anyhow, back to the tough choices thing. Dennis Chaconas and the members of the Oakland School Board recognized their mistake (an ubalanced budget) and corrected it (offering a balanced budget), with the state on its back, with no support from Mayor Brown, facing a hostile teachers union, and having to answer (by law) to the citizens of Oakland. Randolph Ward, with only the State Superintendent to report to, overspends without demonstrable consequences. So who did the tougher job? You be the judge.