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Would Closing Schools in Oakland Save Money or Raise Academic Achievement?

Published

8 years ago

January 8, 2018

Speakers line up at Oakland Board of Education meeting. Photo by Oakland North.

Despite the calls to close schools in Oakland and other cities – as a way to conserve money and focus resources on the remaining schools – there exists little evidence that shutting down campuses is a successful strategy for fiscal solvency or increasing student academic success.

The Oakland Board of Education, acting on the work of outside consultants and a community advisory group, is expected in January to start discussing possible school closings as a way to “right size” the district.

The changes could go into effect at the end of the school year in June.

Speaking to the school board last summer, Fiscal Crisis and Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT) staff urged the district to move ahead with plans to shut school sites, saying the board would be “amazed” by how much money they would save.

However, FCMAT produced no numbers or evidence of positive financial or educational results of the past closing of schools in Oakland or other districts under the agency’s leadership.

Proponents of school closings point out that the district has many more schools than the average district in California of similar size.

“Getting to the median would require OUSD to reduce its portfolio by approximately 30 schools,” according to an article published by Educate78, an Oakland-based, pro-charter school organization.

The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) already has a lot of experience with shutting down schools.

Under the administration of state receiver Randolph Ward, the state and FCMAT, a state funded nonprofit, in 2004 closed five elementary schools: Burbank, Marcus Foster, Longfellow, John Swett and Toler Heights.

They later closed another five schools: Washington and Golden Gate Elementary and Kings Estates, Lowell and Carter middle schools.

During the administration of Supt. Tony Smith in 2011, the district closed five elementary schools: Marshall, Lakeview Elementary, Maxwell Park, Santa Fe and Lazear.

In addition, a number of the small schools created two decades ago in Oakland during the “Small Autonomous Schools Movement,” were abandoned as larger schools were reintroduced on campuses such as Castlemont and Fremont High, regardless of whether or not the little schools had vitality, were popular or successful.

FCMAT’s push to close local schools goes back to when the state-funded, Bakersfield-based nonprofit arrived in Oakland in 2003. Word quickly spread that the agency was saying Oakland had too many schools, based on a mathematical ratio, which according to the California Department of Education (CDE) was: 73-square-feet per student in elementary, 80-square-feet per student in middle and 95-square-feet per student in high schools.

State Administrator Ward was reported to have said in a meeting that by the time he left OUSD, it would be small enough to fit in his hands, more like the size of a suburban school district.

Rather than improving district schools, the track record is indicative of a school district in upheaval that has steadily lost enrollment and revenue and has been unable to undo the stark inequity between resources available for most low-income flatland schools and affluent hill-area campuses.

In 2000, OUSD had about 52,0000 students. It currently has 36,000.

Most of the closed schools were those that served low-income students and students of color.

Meanwhile, charter schools – facilitated and protected by state laws – have grown in Oakland at the expense of the public system, with 44 schools and 14,000 students. Some of the charters occupy space on district campuses.

A number of research studies and reports call into question the claims of advocates of closing schools.

A major study released in May 2017 by the National Education Policy Center found that, “school closures as a strategy for remedying student achievement in low-performing schools is a high-risk/low-gain strategy that fails to hold promise with respect to either student achievement or non-cognitive well-being.

“It causes political conflict and incurs hidden costs for both districts and local communities, especially low-income communities of color that are differentially affected by school closings,” the report said. “There are costs associated with closing buildings and transferring teachers and students, which reduce the available resources for the remaining schools.”

Closings particularly negatively impact Black students, according to the study. In urban school closures 61 percent of the impacted students are African-American, though Black students make up only about 31 percent of urban school populations. And in districts such as Chicago, Black teachers are also more likely to be affected.

Ultimately, Oakland can look to its own history to answer questions about the value of closing schools: Did OUSD improve educationally and financially when FCMAT and the state directly managed the district from 2003 to 2009?

Has closing neighborhood schools contributed to the economic stability of OUSD?

Examining the legacy of the state takeover, Oakland Tribune reporter Katy Murphy wrote in 2009:

“The Oakland school district is emerging from state receivership $89 million in debt. It faces a budget hole of $18 million for the 2010-11 school year, even if the state government makes no additional cuts.”

“For years, auditors with the state controller’s office have issued “inconclusive” findings on the state of the school district’s finances,” she said. “The auditors reported last summer that the agency’s bottom line was unclear because key records dating to the time of the takeover were missing or inconsistent.”

The Tribune reported that that Alameda County Grand Jury, in its 2007-08 report, found that “the district was hampered by continuous staff turnover, particularly in the area of finance, numerous reorganizations and a succession of state administrators.… After nearly five years of state management, OUSD’s budget remains unbalanced, and the district’s future is unclear.”

In an interview, Robert Blackburn, a former Oakland schools’ superintendent, said the state takeover had done damage to the school system and to the city, according to the Tribune.

Blackburn said the State Superintendent of Instruction treated Oakland “like an absentee landlord with slum properties,” and that the upheaval led to many families leaving district schools.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke