"We will make it because we have the common sense to draw on each other, and the audacity to believe that in concert, we are equal to the great task." — Marcus Foster
We're a volunteer, parent-led PAC working to elect school board leaders who center kids — their outcomes, their safety, and their future. Families deserve a real voice in the decisions that shape our schools.
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These aren't just numbers — they're kids whose futures are being limited right now. We can and must do better, with proven teaching methods, strong supports, and no excuses.
From the schools
The concerns OPQE raises aren't abstract — they're being voiced directly by the people running Oakland's schools every day. In two remarkable letters, principals from across OUSD have gone on record about what's happening inside the district.
Thirty elementary school principals wrote to the Board to push back on budget cuts that strip schools down to a teacher, a principal, and an administrative assistant — and call everything else optional. Their message: that assumption is wrong. They lay out in clear terms the specific roles — instructional coaches, attendance specialists, noon supervisors, IEP substitutes — that make a school actually function, and ask the Board to protect them.
Signed by 30 principals including schools across East, West, and North Oakland.
Read the letterA broader coalition — principals representing two-thirds of OUSD schools and more than 73% of students — sent an urgent letter to the Superintendent and Board. They call out a 30% grade-level reading rate, a structural deficit being papered over with short-term cuts, a 50% reduction in professional development time negotiated away in the teacher's contract, and a lack of transparency around the superintendent search and a controversial new CBO hire. They make five specific demands, including protecting professional learning time and accelerating an authentic superintendent search.
Signed by principals from more than 50 schools — elementary, middle, and high school — across the district.
Read the letterWatch
In the news
Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro told a parent-led community forum that Oakland has the highest per-pupil spending of any large district in the county, yet keeps making financial plans and abandoning them. "The root problem is enrollment," she said — and the board's job is to make hard decisions and follow through.
Read the article →Three months after avoiding a strike, teachers still haven't seen their raises — because district officials agreed to an 11–13% pay increase without knowing what it would cost. Budget projections have swung by $130 million in under two weeks, and the county superintendent says she's not sure the district knows how much money it has.
Read the article →Mission
Values
Every decision starts with what's best for students — not politics, not adults, not inertia. All kids reading and doing math on grade level.
Every child deserves a safe school with libraries, counselors, arts, and sports. No more spreading resources so thin that every child struggles.
Families deserve leaders with integrity who make the hard decisions for the good of the entire district — today and for generations to come.
Parents and students deserve a school board that listens to us and acts on our concerns.
Your donation moves this work from concern to coordinated action — funding candidates who will govern for Oakland's kids.
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