Oakland will launch a citywide effort Thursday to triple the number of college graduates coming out of public schools, an ambitious and expensive “cradle to career” plan that aims to reverse cycles of poverty and hopelessness by raising expectations that all children can thrive in school.
The centerpiece of the Oakland Promise initiative is an infusion of grants, ranging from $500 college savings accounts for children born into poverty to college scholarships of up to $16,000 for low-income students. The money is intended to provide both real and symbolic support, signaling to kids and their families that there’s an investment in their future.
According to officials, who have spent six months developing the initiative and will announce the details Thursday at Oakland High School, it will cost $38 million to ramp up the program over the first four years and up to $35 million annually to sustain it. The money is coming from sources including foundations, philanthropists, the city and the school district.
The effort is something of an experiment, because no other place in the country has this kind of comprehensive, long-term strategy to send more kids to college, city officials said. But the need is great in Oakland, where 10 percent of the city’s public-school ninth graders graduate college.
“Yes, this initiative is ambitious,” said Mayor Libby Schaaf. “All my life I’ve seen this as the one thing that has held Oakland back.”
Over the next 10 years, officials said, Oakland Promise plans to open 55,000 college savings accounts, provide $100 million in college scholarships and serve 200,000 students and families. Every City Council and school board member has endorsed it, as have 100 community organizations, two dozen university officials and 200 leaders including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
$25 million raised
While sustained funding is the central challenge, Oakland officials say they raised $25 million to launch the effort. The school district is expected to cover $1 million annually, and the city has committed $150,000, a number that may increase now that the initiative has begun, officials said.
The East Bay College Fund plans to contribute $1.5 million per year, while Kaiser Permanente and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. are giving $3 million and $1 million, respectively, to start up the program. Organizers will need $18 million more to cover the costs through 2020, an amount they say is reachable.
“It will be on us to make the case that eventually this would be one of the smartest public investments that any city could make,” Schaaf said.
Leading the list of the most influential education scholars is Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emerita at Stanford University where she is faculty director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association. Her most recent books are 
Gloria Ladson-Billings ranked fifth among most influential scholars in education. She holds the 
Claude Steele is executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California at Berkeley. From 2011 to 2014, he was dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Professor Steele served for two years as provost at Columbia University in New York City after being a member of the Stanford faculty from 1991 to 2009. Professor Steele is perhaps best know for his work on the underperformance of minority students due to stereotype threat. Professor Steele is the author of 
A Kansas man overcame the odds to graduate college.
Joshua Woods said he never believed he would attain his dreams, but that all changed when he graduated from Wichita State in December. That’s because Woods was homeless and lived on his sister’s floor.
Woods’ parents had both died and he was ready to give up. Instead, he used his last $30 to apply to Wichita State and was accepted. “I was disappointed. Mostly in myself but also at life. I felt like I wasn’t dealt a good hand to begin with. I was in foster care. My father passed away when I was 16. I was the only kid on my block with no guardian.”
He worked his way through college, which included working overnight at a grocery store. In the mornings, he would run five miles to school because he had no vehicle. “It was hard to hold my tears as I walked across that stage,” Woods said. “To be considered stupid all your life and you graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree… I don’t know about anyone else, but it was a triumph for me.”
Woods graduated with a communications degree and hopes to pursue a career in journalism.
article via fox5atlanta.com
