*Updated 11/20/2024* Election Day is just around the corner on November 5th! We reached out to candidates running for office to represent Oakland - City Council, Oakland Unified School Board, City Attorney, and Alameda County Board of Supervisors - and asked them to complete a questionnaire about their experience and views on Oakland’s early childhood ecosystem. We received 17 responses from 41 candidates. Each of Oakland’s City Districts has different programs, services, and community resources that support Oakland’s youngest children. Each district also has its own systemic challenges, with many children, families, and early childhood educators who have unmet needs. To help understand the city’s early childhood landscape, OSSS developed the Oakland Early Childhood Ecosystem City District Profiles for each of Oakland's seven City Districts. These profiles are for community advocates, policy and programs leaders, funders, Oakland City Councilmembers, and OUSD School Board Directors who seek to leverage data for place-based early childhood systems change. The City of Oakland is in the midst of determining its budget for the next two fiscal years (2023-24 and 2024-25). Mayor Sheng Thao unveiled her $4.2 billion budget proposal on May 3, 2023 and City Council has until June 30, 2023 to pass a final budget. This year, there is a $360 million budget deficit to contend with due to fewer tax revenues and the loss of pandemic emergency dollars. Mayor Thao presented a balanced budget made possible by hiring freezes, strategic reductions, and a proposed reorganization of some city departments.
Election Day is on November 8! To help the OSSS community make informed decisions about their elected officials, we asked each candidate running for an office representing Oakland about their vision for Oakland’s Early Childhood Ecosystem. With the goal to raise awareness of ECE as an important issue, our collaborative developed a questionnaire based on “Early Childhood Education Matters in Oakland: An Informational Guide for Elected Officials and Candidates.” |
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