Editorial: Measure H, Oakland school tax increase, deserves support

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Oakland voters are being asked to extend and increase a property tax to pay for a high school program that seems to be helping increase graduation rates.

Measure H would continue funding for the district’s College and Career for All Initiative, a districtwide high school program that links learning to real-world professions. The idea is to make classroom work more relevant by applying it to specific careers. Students are provided internships. Outside professionals provide some of the instruction.

Voters should support Measure H, which at the start would raise an estimated $11.5 million annually, but they should not be fooled by backers’ false claim that this isn’t a tax increase. It is.

The original ballot measure, Measure N, approved by voters in 2014, set a tax of $120 per parcel. That tax is due to expire in 2024. This new measure would extend the tax to 2037 and would add annual cost-of-living increases up to 5% per year. If, for example, the cost of living averages 4% annually, the yearly tax at the end of the 14-year period would be $200.

No matter how you cut it, that’s a tax increase. For the sake of the students, we hope the teachers in the program are more adept at math and English than the promoters of the measure.

It’s understandable if Oakland property owners are reluctant to support the measure because they already feel tapped out by special school and youth taxes.

Property tax payments for school construction bonds will increase significantly in the next few years, peaking in 2026 at a projected $126 per $100,000 of assessed value. That’s $630 annually for the owner of a $500,000 home. Additionally, property owners pay $315 annually for two taxes that supplement school operations. And there’s Mayor Libby Schaaf’s ill-conceived Children’s Initiative parcel tax that’s now at $226 annually and rising each year.

At least Measure H is targeted at a specific program with clear goals. And data provided by Gary Yee, a school board trustee who initiated the original program when he was superintendent of the district, show improvements in high school graduation rates since voters passed Measure N. However, the numbers overlap time periods when other school funding had also increased.

According to Yee’s data, portions of ninth graders who make it all the way through to graduation increased from 61% in 2014 to 73% in 2019, an overall 12 percentage point gain. For Black students, the rate increased from 58% in 2014 to 76% in 2019, up 18 percentage points. For Latino students, the increase was from 54% in 2014 to 61% in 2019, up 7 percentage points.

The program deserves independent and more-detailed analysis. But, for now, it also deserves voter support.