Oakland
Op-Ed: Teachers Union Challenges Local Charter Schools
The following letter from Trish Gorham, Oakland Education Association president, was printed March 14 in the New York Times:
“Oakland Is Flash Point in Billionaire’s Push for Charter Schools,” (front page, March 5) explains the dispute well. But positive results from the “group of businessmen with grand ambitions to remake public education” have yet to be realized.
Have we seen great success as a result of the business model in public education, which features highly paid executives and consultants and top-down decision-making? Has a decade of school closings, disruptions of leadership and staff, mandated curriculum undone by a new mandated curriculum every other year, redesign after redesign, and more and more standardized tests produced positive results in Oakland, or have they created conflict and chaos, undermining confidence in our public schools?
Have Oakland’s four superintendents trained at an academy financed by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation — out of seven in the last 13 years — made a significant difference? If not, then we need to ask why the aforementioned solutions continue to be touted by the corporate class as essential fixes.
Eli Broad’s assessment that the placement of his minions “has been a worthwhile investment” must be based on a metric other than improving student outcomes.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of November 26 – December 2, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 26 – December 2, 2025
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Oakland Post: Week of November 19 – 25, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 19 – 25, 2025
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IN MEMORIAM: William ‘Bill’ Patterson, 94
Bill devoted his life to public service and education. In 1971, he became the founding director for the Peralta Community College Foundation, he also became an administrator for Oakland Parks and Recreation overseeing 23 recreation centers, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, Lake Merritt, and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.
William “Bill” Patterson, 94, of Little Rock, Arkansas, passed away peacefully on October 21, 2025, at his home in Oakland, CA. He was born on May 19, 1931, to Marie Childress Patterson and William Benjamin Patterson in Little Rock, Arkansas. He graduated from Dunbar High School and traveled to Oakland, California, in 1948. William Patterson graduated from San Francisco State University, earning both graduate and undergraduate degrees. He married Euradell “Dell” Patterson in 1961. Bill lovingly took care of his wife, Dell, until she died in 2020.
Bill devoted his life to public service and education. In 1971, he became the founding director for the Peralta Community College Foundation, he also became an administrator for Oakland Parks and Recreation overseeing 23 recreation centers, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, Lake Merritt, and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.
He served on the boards of Oakland’s Urban Strategies Council, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, and the Oakland Workforce Development Board.
He was a three-term president of the Oakland branch of the NAACP.
Bill was initiated in the Gamma Alpha chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
In 1997 Bill was appointed to the East Bay Utility District Board of Directors. William Patterson was the first African American Board President and served the board for 27 years.
Bill’s impact reached far beyond his various important and impactful positions.
Bill mentored politicians, athletes and young people. Among those he mentored and advised are legends Joe Morgan, Bill Russell, Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, and Lionel Wilson to name a few.
He is survived by his son, William David Patterson, and one sister, Sarah Ann Strickland, and a host of other family members and friends.
A celebration of life service will take place at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center (Calvin Simmons Theater) on November 21, 2025, at 10 AM.
His services are being livestreamed at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1250167107131991/
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Euradell and William Patterson scholarship fund TBA.
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