Victor Javier Valerio for the Oakland School Board, District 7
The Network for Public Education Action is pleased to endorse Victor Javier Valerio for the Oakland School Board, District 7. Victor is a graduate of Oakland schools. He said, that if elected, he will advocate for transparency, community building, and collective accountability for students. “I am committed to supporting district schools in each neighborhood where children can learn and thrive, without additional charter schools in the city,” he told us.
In a district in which one third of all non-private schools is a charter school, Victor had this to say, “I attended a charter school for middle school and I understand the reason why they were formed. A history of divestment, language barriers, and disconnection led many to form charter schools. As a student, I saw the early versions of charter schools mobilized by grassroot efforts. The charter school model was meant to help create new policies and programs that could be adopted district wide. Charter schools were never meant to substitute for district-run schools.
Victor continued, “Today, there is a whole pro-charter industry that is seeking to privatize the public school system. This effort is anti-democratic and a source of major concern. Many charter schools function on a business model and serve students to meet the minimum requirements while being non transparent on fiscal or budget expenses. They also tend to over pay their administrators and under pay their teachers. I advocate for a reduction of charter schools. The proliferation in Oakland has been detrimental to the fiscal health of the district, has resulted in increased segregation of communities, and has limited student enrollment to the school district.”
Victor is an outstanding candidate in a race in which Michael Bloomberg and others are pouring millions into the race to support privatization. We urge voters in Oakland District 7 to cast their vote for Victor in the general election on November 3, 2020.
No candidate authorized this ad. It is paid for by Network for Public Education Action, New York, New York.