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Meet Chanée Franklin Minor, Oakland’s New ‘Rent Board’ Manager

Published

7 years ago

March 21, 2019

Chanée Franklin Minor was appointed the new manager for Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program, often referred to as the “rent board,” about four months ago. She’s working to create a more efficient program that’s active in its enforcement of housing laws and ordinances. Photo by Zack Haber.

After growing up in Oakland, Chanée Franklin Minor graduated Cornell’s Law School and worked for the city of Berkeley but due to Oakland’s housing crisis, she’s decided to come back to work in her home town. It’s been about four months since Minor became the new program manager for Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program (ORAP).

“The main reason I came back to Oakland was to help contribute to the fight against displacement and make sure Oakland is stable, particularly for folks who grew up here,” Minor said.

One of the most important aspects to housing stability, according to Minor, is rent stability. ORAP strives to help tenants understand their rights under the law when it comes to housing so that they aren’t given unlawful rent increases.

“When we’re in a housing crisis it’s super important for us to understand and make sure that people aren’t paying above what they lawfully should pay,” Minor says.

Minor also wants to help landlords to avoid potentially expensive unlawful situations. Some landlords find out too late that there’s a $100 a day fine for either cutting off a tenant’s lights or changing their locks. Minor thinks landlords wouldn’t make those choices if they’re aware of the fines beforehand.

In the last four months ORAP has already nearly doubled its drop-in hours where residents can ask questions and receive free help with navigating housing law issues. They’re available 27 hours a week now, including during lunch. She’s also launched a landlord/tenant mediation program and helped to clear up a mailing backlog which she estimates will decrease ORAP’s response time to residents by several months. In the past, it’s sometimes taken ORAP over a year to resolve tenant/landlord disputes but Minor is working to drastically reduce that wait.

Minor hopes to transform Oakland’s rent board from a passive model to an active model. As Oakland voters have increasingly passed ordinances to limit rent increases and evictions, she wants ORAP to actively seek out violations of ordinances instead of waiting for tenants to come to them.

She’s also worked to inform Oakland residents of the law and their rights so that less housing law violations occur. ORAP has already scheduled a workshop to inform landlords on the law and their rights for March 26 and now is planning a similar workshop for tenants in April.

“Information can help stop illegal evictions and rent increases,” Minor says.

Although the ORAP has changed a lot in the last four months, Minor thinks it will need more funding in order to effectively do work that will help people to stay housed: resolving landlord/tenant disputes in a timely manner, increasing outreach, and seeking out and enforcing violations of housing laws and ordinances.

ORAP is funded entirely by a yearly fee, which is split between tenants and landlords. That fee in Oakland has historically been low. It sits at 68$ now, about a quarter of Berkeley’s rent adjustment program fee, which is 250$. Minor is hoping that Oakland residents and the city will have enough trust in ORAP now to adequately fund it. She’s trying to increase the yearly fee to 101$. The city council will vote in early April on whether or not to approve the increase.

“I want people to know that we’re here, and we want to help people navigate their housing, one of the most important things in their lives,” Minor said. “We’re not new but we’re under new leadership that is trying to build an efficient and functional program.”

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State of Preschool Yearbook Provides an Annual Snapshot of State-Funded Preschool

By National Institute for Early Education Research Georgia’s state-funded pre-k program for 4-year-olds was recognized as the largest state-funded preschool program in the nation to meet all 10 quality benchmarks, and the first universal program to do so. Georgia’s recognition is the top finding in the National Institute for Early Education Research’s new 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook. The yearbook provides an annual snapshot of state-funded preschool across the country. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia fund preschool programs. “Georgia is proud to be a leader in quality early childhood education as we work to ensure all Georgians have the opportunity to succeed, including our youngest learners,” said Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Having strategically invested in our Pre-K classrooms, we are both meeting all 10 NIEER benchmarks of excellence and giving Georgia students a […]

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6 days ago

April 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Institute for Early Education Research

Georgia’s state-funded pre-k program for 4-year-olds was recognized as the largest state-funded preschool program in the nation to meet all 10 quality benchmarks, and the first universal program to do so. Georgia’s recognition is the top finding in the National Institute for Early Education Research’s new 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook. The yearbook provides an annual snapshot of state-funded preschool across the country. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia fund preschool programs.

“Georgia is proud to be a leader in quality early childhood education as we work to ensure all Georgians have the opportunity to succeed, including our youngest learners,” said Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Having strategically invested in our Pre-K classrooms, we are both meeting all 10 NIEER benchmarks of excellence and giving Georgia students a strong start on the path of lifelong learning.”

Only five additional states meet all 10 of NIEER’s research-based benchmarks for quality —Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island—in this year’s report. None of those programs has the reach of Georgia Pre-K. NIEER’s benchmarks measure essential preschool quality indicators, including teacher qualifications, class sizes, early learning standards, and program assessments.

“Other states should take note: Georgia proves that state-funded preschool with well-qualified teachers, pay parity with K-12, small classes, and strong continuous improvement systems can be scaled as a universal program,” said NIEER director Steve Barnett. “With new initiatives to support quality, Georgia can expect increased enrollment, but leaders should also actively promote increased enrollment.”

Nationally, state support for preschool education hit record highs in enrollment and funding in 2024-2025. The pace of growth slowed, however, compared to the prior year, and many states continue to lag behind pre-pandemic enrollment levels.

Preschool enrollment increased by 44,000 children nationally, reaching almost 1.8 million, including 37% of U.S. four-year-olds and 9% of three-year-olds. California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri contributed the most to increased enrollment, adding more than 52,000 new seats.

States spent nearly $14.4 billion on preschool in 2024-2025. Including federal and local dollars, total spending was almost $17.7 billion. Three states each spent more than $1 billion last year: California ($4.1 billion), New Jersey ($1.2 billion), and New York ($1 billion). Together, these three states account for45% of all state preschool spending. Texas adds almost another $1 billion.

Spending increased by $434 million, or 3%, adjusted for inflation. Twenty-eight states increased preschool funding, including Michigan and New Jersey, which each added more than $100 million.

“Not only does preschool access vary by which state a child happens to live in, but so does the quality of that preschool experience,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, lead author of the report. “Only high-quality early care and education programs support children’s development enough to result in lasting academic and other gains that ultimately deliver savings for taxpayers.”

A record six states met all 10 of NIEER’s recommended quality standards, with Alabama doing so for the 20th consecutive year.

Georgia joined this list this year after improving its teacher-to-child ratio from 1:11 to 1:10 and lowering maximum class sizes to 20. Several states met 9 of 10 benchmarks, including New Mexico, which is working toward universal access for both three- and four-year-olds. Once New Mexico requires all lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, it will be on par with Georgia in terms of both quality and quantity.

Not all states moved forward. Twenty states enrolled fewer preschoolers in 2024-2025 than the prior year, with enrollment dropping by more than 1,000 children in Arizona, Florida, NewYork, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Seventeen states spent less on preschool than the prior year, adjusted for inflation, with Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas seeing the largest percentage declines.

Additional information about the State of Preschool Yearbook, including individual state profiles and maps, graphs, and state rankings, can be found at www.nieer.org.

The 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook was supported with funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

The National Institute for Early Education Research at theRutgers Graduate School of Education, New Brunswick, NJ, supports early childhood education policy and practice through independent, objective research and the translation of research to policy and practice

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