Education
Drive to Cap State Charter School Growth Stalls

Earlier this year, it looked like California charter schools faced a mortal threat in the face of the first serious attempts in the state Legislature to put a cap on their growth.
But those efforts have fizzled, at least for this year.
Unhappiness with charter schools was an underlying theme in the two high-profile teacher strikes earlier this year in Los Angeles and Oakland.
As a result of the strike, the Los Angeles Unified school board passed a resolution calling on Sacramento to impose a temporary moratorium on expansion in the district. Oakland Unified issued a similar call, as did the nearby West Contra Costa Unified School District, which has also seen rapid growth in charter school enrollments in recent years.
In the wake of these calls, the state’s major teachers’ unions backed two bills in the Legislature that would have imposed a cap on charter expansion in the state.
In the Senate, SB 756, introduced by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, formerly a prominent labor leader in Los Angeles, would have imposed a five-year moratorium on any new charter schools. And in the Assembly, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, introduced AB 1506 to place a cap on charter schools at the number in operation on Jan. 1, 2020.
His bill would have allowed for new charters in a district as long as they didn’t push the charter enrollment to over 10 percent of the district’s total student enrollment.
Durazo amended her bill to call for a two-year instead of a five-year moratorium, but that was not sufficient to move it along in the Senate.
Last week, both Durazo and McCarty, reading the political tea leaves, decided not to put their bills to a vote in their respective chambers, and turned their bills into two-year bills, which means they will be considered in the next legislative session.
That does not mean that charter schools have escaped possible further regulation. Two bills are still alive that could have a significant impact on charter expansion in the state.
AB 1505 would remove the power of the State Board of Education to approve charter applications after they have been denied by school districts and county offices of education, and also to take into account whether new charter schools would have “negative financial, academic, or facilities impact” on the schools in their authorizing districts.
Currently, school districts are barred from taking financial impact into account. Many charter school advocates think that giving districts the right to take financial impact into account would give districts the license to reject virtually any charter application.
Another bill, AB 1507, would prohibit charter schools from opening additional schools outside the district where they received their original charter.
Nonetheless, Myrna Castrejon, CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, hailed the stalling of the two bills that would have placed a cap or moratorium on charter expansion as a major victory. “The collective power of charter school leaders, teachers, families and students defeated this extreme legislation,” she said.
Another complicating factor is that Newsom called on State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond to establish a Charter Task Force to make recommendations on a range of charter school reforms. That panel is still meeting, and is due to issue its recommendations by the end of this month. There was significant disagreement in the Legislature over whether to proceed with reforms of California’s 27-year-old charter law, or whether to wait until the task force had an opportunity to issue its recommendations.
Eric Premack, executive director of the Charter Schools Development Center in Sacramento, which supports and lobbies for small charter schools, said the decisions to hold the bills indicate that “support for charter schools among more moderate legislators is a lot stronger than some had anticipated.”
At the same, he said “we will learn more when a bill with task force recommendations comes up.” For years, he said, “legislators have not had to think much about charter school policy; charter schools have been relying on Jerry Brown and billionaires to carry their water (and defeat or veto the bills). Now legislators are seeing a genuine grassroots base that they will not want to take lightly.”
Despite complaints from many charter advocates about obstacles they face in establishing schools, the charter sectors have enjoyed a relatively steady growth over the past quarter century, although the growth has slowed considerably over the past five years. With over 1,300 charter schools serving over 600,000 students, about one-sixth of the nation’s charter school student enrollments are enrolled in California charter schools.
Activism
Dr. Kimberly Mayfield Working to Bring a ‘Black-Affirming University’ (HBCU) to Oakland
The goal, according to Mayfield, is to “create a Black-serving institution in Oakland, which means that 50% or more of the student body would be African American.” The Oakland program could either be an HBCU, which is preferable, or a Black-serving institution unaffiliated with other HBCUs. The program itself could become a stand-alone institution or an assemblage of different programs on a single campus.

By Ken Epstein
Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, who, until recently served as deputy mayor of Oakland, has been working for several years with educators and community groups to create a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) or other Black-serving institution of higher education in Oakland — potentially on the fully operational campus of Holy Names University in East Oakland, which went out of business in 2023.
The goal, according to Mayfield, is to “create a Black-serving institution in Oakland, which means that 50% or more of the student body would be African American.”
The Oakland program could either be an HBCU, which is preferable, or a Black-serving institution unaffiliated with other HBCUs. The program itself could become a stand-alone institution or an assemblage of different programs on a single campus.
“It could be a consortium model where programs from existing HBCUs locate in Oakland,” similar to the Atlanta Union Center in Georgia, which offers courses from Morehouse, Spelman, Morris Brown, and Clark Atlanta HBCUs, she said.
“There are four different institutions at Atlanta Union, and students can take classes from the different schools. They’re all based in the same place, but the programs are run by different institutions,” said Mayfield.
Key to the program would be the culture of the school, which would be “Black affirming,” offering students a supportive environment that recognizes them as individuals, she said. The program would be campus-based and include online course offerings.
Courses could be offered in downtown Oakland in office buildings in the Black Business and Arts District as well as at the Holy Names site, which was sold to developers for $64 million and is presently for sale.
Holy Names was a private Roman Catholic university in Oakland founded in 1868 by the Canada-based Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary with whom the university remained affiliated until it closed after facing several years of budget shortfalls.
Before serving as Deputy Mayor, Dr. Mayfield began her career as an educator in the Oakland Unified School District and served as dean of the School of Education and Liberal Arts and the vice president for external relations and strategic partnerships at Holy Names.
She said she has already found a lot of interest from various sources for donating funds to start the school, she said. “We have reached out to the East Bay Community Foundation, to set up the necessary structures to receive money to help with strategic planning,” and all other aspects investors want to see, including an internet presence.
The team working on the initiative has 16 members and is led by Mayfield, Councilmember Carroll Fife, and retired attorney Kim Thompson. They recently attended a conference of HBCU leaders held by the United Negro College Fund, where the Oakland proposal was greeted with enthusiasm.
Mayfield emphasized that the goal of bringing an HBCU is something that has broad support in Oakland and has been a subject of growing interest for several decades.
“This is a community-driven initiative. While former Mayor Sheng Thao’s support was important and allowed us to get organized in a certain way, it doesn’t end with her leadership” she said, adding that outgoing Congresswoman Barbara Lee and other mayoral candidates have expressed support for this initiative.
Mayfield said she and her team have been in conversations with leaders of some HBCUs, which are interested in expanding to the West Coast but face financial constraints.
“It’s the racial wealth gap, which affects HBCUs,” the same as the rest of Black America, she said. “They just don’t have the same financial resources that predominantly white institutions have. It’s hard for them to think about a completely separate, sustained campus, when they have to deal with preserving the infrastructure on their main campus.”
She said Holy Names University had 1,400 students at its largest enrollment, with no online component. “We could easily have 1,000 students matriculating on campus, and another online population of students, virtually.”
“We’d like all the virtual students to be close enough to come to campus and participate in the campus culture,” because that’s the difference an HBCU makes, Mayfield said. “It cares for students, sees you as a person, not a number, in touch with wraparound services, calling you if you’re not in class.”
“We want to have an institution that knows who the students are,” she said. “You know their brilliance when they walk in, and you’re doing everything possible academically for them to succeed and thrive.”
Activism
Scholarships Available for Marin City and Sausalito Students
The Sausalito Woman’s Club Scholarship Recognition Fund is seeking candidates for its annual Scholarship Program. Candidates are eligible to apply if they are a permanent resident of Sausalito or Marin City (living in the zip code 94965), a current high school senior or a high school graduate, and planning to continue their education in college, graduate school, vocational school, or art school.

By Godfrey Lee
Scholarships are available through the Sausalito Women’s Club (SWC) Scholarship Recognition Fund for the Academic Year 2025-26.
Established in 1956 as a charitable arm of the Sausalito Women’s Club (SWC), scholarship has played an important role in the local community by helping more than 1,000 residents pursue higher education and by awarding over $1 million in its first 60 years.
The Sausalito Woman’s Club Scholarship Recognition Fund is seeking candidates for its annual Scholarship Program. Candidates are eligible to apply if they are a permanent resident of Sausalito or Marin City (living in the zip code 94965), a current high school senior or a high school graduate, and planning to continue their education in college, graduate school, vocational school, or art school.
The deadline to submit applications are due on March 10.
Applications are available through the SWC Scholarship Recognition Fund website: www.swcsrf.org. Or email swcsrfApplications@gmail.com. Applications can also be obtained and submitted by US mail to: SWCSRF/Application Committee, P.O. Box 3045, Sausalito, CA 94966.
Alameda County
New Data Show an Increase in Californians Enrolling as Undergraduates at UC Berkeley
UC and campus officials state that the increase in California undergraduates reinforces their dedication to expanding access to the state’s students and fulfilling the university’s compact with Gov. Newsom, and with the Legislature’s support, to grow in-state enrollment.

The trend reflects an increase in Californian students enrolling across the UC system
By UC Berkeley News
Public Affairs Office
More Californians enrolled as new undergraduate students at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses in fall 2024 compared to the prior year, according to data released Tuesday by officials with the University of California systemwide office.
At the University of California, Berkeley, 7,657 new transfer and first-year students from California enrolled in fall 2024. Their percentage increased to 85% of all newly enrolled undergraduates, compared to about 80% in fall 2023.
UC and campus officials state that the increase in California undergraduates reinforces their dedication to expanding access to the state’s students and fulfilling the university’s compact with Gov. Newsom, and with the Legislature’s support, to grow in-state enrollment.
Last spring, UC Berkeley officials admitted fewer first-year and transfer students to compensate for prior admissions cycles in which more students enrolled than anticipated. However, they increased the proportion of California residents offered first-year admission, increasing that number from 75% for fall 2023 to almost 80% for fall 2024. This occurred by offering fall 2024 admission to fewer first-year, out-of-state students, and international students.
Additional enrollment data for Berkeley and the nine other UC campuses are available on the UC website.
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