Jason Freeman Press Release
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 6 August 2010 — 1 comment below »
The West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) — or, perhaps more accurately, the Richmond School District — needs new leadership. The behemoth school district is broken, broke, and fails to provide the quality education Herculeans deserve and pay for.
One newcomer in this year’s election is Jason Freeman (the three incumbents are running for re-election), and his press release is attached below. Freeman has an impressive background and a website he says will grow with positions on issues in the near future.
As an advocate of local control and small school districts however, I asked Freeman about his position on creating localized trustee areas (or “districting”) within the District to allow for a more representative school board. Such an effort had built up support in 2008, but the County rejected the ballot measure in order to offer a better opportunity for a parcel tax to pass.
The candidate, an El Cerrito resident, responded appropriately but also rather predictably. “I would favor consideration of a districting plan,” Freeman said, “possibly a balance of districts and at-large. In theory, at-large seats should get balanced representation for everyone since every vote is equal. However, that clearly has not been the perception from many voters.”
“There are no perfect solutions,” Freeman continued in his response. “I think the bigger concern is the lack of candidates from the northern part of the district. [Hercules and Pinole leaders] have tried to recruit candidates, but they have found few people willing to take the plunge.”
Although there is value — and honor — in trying and failing miserably in a school board election (one largely controlled by Richmond and El Cerrito), that’s sort of like asking a high school sophomore to try out for the Yankees. He may have a better shot with a minor league team, or the A’s.
EXPERIENCED EDUCATOR SEEKS SEAT ON WEST CONTRA COSTA SCHOOL BOARD
Jason Freeman, a former classroom teacher with 13 years of experience in education, filed papers on Friday to run for the West Contra Costa school board.
“I have worked at all levels of education — from the classroom to Washington, DC — and I have seen success in many forms. Our district faces great challenges, and now is the time to build upon examples of success from our own and other communities. Our community must come together to support our schools, and I have the experience to make that happen.”
Freeman’s career in education has focused on building networks and coalitions, primarily supporting science and math education for youth in underserved communities. As the founding director of the Coalition for Science After School, Freeman brought together over 600 organizations, including science museums, providers of afterschool programs, and community groups, to advocate for and implement science learning beyond the school day. Freeman helped unite teachers, families, and community members who wanted better public schools for their children as a teacher and part of the founding team of the IDEA Academy (now IDEA Public Schools), recently recognized as one of the best schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Former student and recent college graduate Sandy Garcia says, “Jason Freeman is one of those teachers a student will never forget. He lays the foundation for learning and then challenges the student to do more. He is sincere about his passion for giving each child the opportunity for a quality education. … He was one of the first teachers to mention a college education, something I was completely unaware of before then. I am proud to say I am one year away from completing my master’s program and I owe my success to teachers like him.”
Freeman recognizes the difficulties faced by an incoming school trustee — a structural deficit, mounting debt, safety problems, and declining enrollment — and offers a new perspective in addressing those challenges. “Funding for education is changing nationwide, and districts must be prepared to compete for support. The districts where everyone is working together will be rewarded, and I will work to ensure that West Contra Costa is not left out.”
Freeman is a trustee of the West Contra Costa Public Education Foundation, which supports public education throughout the district. He and his wife Gretchen, who is also a science educator, live in El Cerrito with their one-year-old daughter Sydney.
CONTACT: Jason Freeman, 510-592-4573, jason@jasonfreeman.org
Jason is a good and decent man and can bring a lot to the table as we all try to improve the broken educational system we have. His work on the Ed Fund Board is already a good start. Volunteering to serve on any of the many committees that assist the District would be another good place to start (the old ‘start at the bottom and work your way up’ approach). Going that route is a good way for interested activists to get to know the intricacies of the District. As they used to sing in that old movie The Music Man: “ya gotta know the territory.”
Jason has a lot of good ideas and visions for how things can be but I’d be very interested in listening to his plans for implementation. One that he spoke of the other evening was increasing the teaching time for each student. Like a lot of other people, I couldn’t agree more. As a matter of fact, I’m no longer of the opinion that we need to take the kids out of school for the summer so they can pick the crops. I think they should be in school year round so we can give them as many learning opportunities as possible.
BUT, at the end of the day, we need to ask the same old question: How are we going to pay for it? Even with our budget crises in the District, we’ve been able to hold steady and have not had to reduce teaching time but we surely have to think that before the teachers agree to spending more time on the job, they’re going to ask to be properly compensated.
Several times I’ve asked Dr. Harter to bring out that big box of cash he must keep squirreled away so we can properly pay our teachers but every time he insists that this box is just a myth.
Ward elections for School Board Trustees seems like a good idea on the surface but there are significant flaws in the concept and most communities where they have such elections (whether on the city or county level) have shown that the system does not serve the community as a whole. [This is one of those issues that can on for pages but that might be best served in another forum.]
Advocates of ward elections for our District argue that the northern part of the District is under represented. Even Jason points out that “the lack of candidates from the northern part of the district” is a concern. I’m not sure I agree with his assessment, though. I don’t think it’s a lack of candidates as much as a lack of electable candidates. We’ve had too many candidates running from the northern area who seem to take a different approach than the rest of the District and the voters aren’t embracing them or their ideas. Perhaps it would be better for some of those candidates to work from within the organization rather than advocating that the District be broken up and polarized.
Since most residents of the District are not a part of the more affluent neighborhoods, they are not as willing to embrace taking their tax dollars and using them to help subsidize charter schools or provide vouchers for private schools as some candidates advocate.
I look forward to this campaign and hearing what all of the candidates have to say about the issues. We all know that we have problems with our District but the question may be in how to fix those problems. We all love a dreamer with grand ideas of the way things ought to be but we also need pragmatists that understand that getting things done is a lot tougher—and dirtier—than anyone wants to know about.