Berkeley is a failed school district. It is also a racist school district that the KKK would love. Worse, it does not have money to educate students. But, they have money to take from education and give in “reparations”.
“The task force charged with creating a reparations program for Black students in the Berkeley school district will meet for an additional six months before presenting its recommendations to the school board in June.
Intending to give cash payments to students whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States, Berkeley Unified established the task force in March. If implemented, it may be the first program of its kind in the country.”
Look at all the time and resources they are using NOT to educate. Failed schools—this is part of the reason why?
Reparations at Berkeley schools: District will hear recommendations this summer
A task force convened in March is expected to give its initial advice on how BUSD should fund and structure a reparations program for students with enslaved ancestors.
By Ally Markovich, Berkeleyside, 12/12/23 https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/12/12/busd-reparations-program-update-berkeley-unified-school-district?utm_source=Berkeleyside+newsletters&utm_campaign=69f355e497-RSS_DAILY_BRIEFING&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aad4b5ee64-69f355e497-323112229&goal=0_aad4b5ee64-69f355e497-323112229&mc_cid=69f355e497&mc_eid=b83149c3e5
The task force charged with creating a reparations program for Black students in the Berkeley school district will meet for an additional six months before presenting its recommendations to the school board in June.
Intending to give cash payments to students whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States, Berkeley Unified established the task force in March. If implemented, it may be the first program of its kind in the country.
Since April, the 18-member task force has met monthly to set the course for the new reparations program. Its first job is to determine how BUSD should fund reparations; later, it will determine how the program should be structured and implemented, and who would be eligible for payments. At a presentation to the school board last week, the task force members asked for more time to answer these questions.
Describing BUSD’s pursuit of reparations as part of a larger movement reckoning with the harm done to Black Americans, school board director Ka’Dijah Brown told the crowd at the school board meeting that they were “bearing witness to what will be a pivotal moment ever etched in Berkeley Unified school district’s history books.”
“Our inboxes since we began this work have been flooded with support from community members, from elected officials and from those even outside of the BUSD or Berkeley community,” Brown said. “It is not just us who believes in and wants to support reparations; you have an entire community behind you.”
School board director Laura Babitt said BUSD reparations could become a form of “financial atonement,” putting money behind the acknowledgement that America has “devastated generations of Black people in America.”
Over the last eight months, the task force learned more about reparations, hearing presentations from experts, and gathered community feedback. In the fall, the chair of California’s reparations task force, Kamilah Moore, gave a public presentation and the BUSD task force held a community listening session. Next, it will distribute a survey about reparations to the community.
Members of the Berkeley reparations task force shared their personal beliefs about the importance of reparations at the school board meeting.
“I am Japanese American, and many of my family members were incarcerated during World War II in Japanese American concentration camps. They later received redress and reparations for that mistreatment. And I carry on that legacy today by being here and supporting Black reparations,” said Adena Ishii, who co-chairs the task force. Ishii is also running for Berkeley mayor.
Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, more than 30 cities, counties and states have pursued reparations for Black residents, though only in Evanston, Illinois, have cash payments been implemented.
The city of Berkeley is also exploring its own reparations effort, though the process is stuck in early stages. What that might look like is still being determined, but a report prepared by councilmember Ben Bartlett outlined several steps, ranging from public apology to wealth creation through housing. The city’s plan could also include cash payments.
