F
ive years ago, there were 37,049 students
enrolled in Oakland, Calif., public schools.
Today that number is down nearly 10%—a de-
cline the district attributes to lower birth rates,
a lack of affordable housing, and the pandemic causing
more families to leave the Bay Area. And after a marathon
debate that stretched eight hours, the city’s school board
did what many others may soon have to consider, voting
on Feb. 9 to close or merge nearly a dozen schools.
Education experts say the Oakland plan, which will af-
fect the district’s now roughly 33,000 students and their
families, refects the hard choices facing school districts
nationwide as they contend with enrollment declines and
funding challenges that have been exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“School districts are between a rock and a hard place.
They need to be financially responsible, but they also
have a fundamental responsi-
bility to the well-being of their
students,” says Thomas Dee, a
professor at Stanford Univer-
sity’s Graduate School of Educa-
tion who has researched public-
school enrollment loss. “I don’t
envy the difficult choices
they’re facing right now.”
The Oakland unified school
district (OUSD) board of
education voted 4 to 2 to close
seven schools over the next two
years, merge two other schools,
and eliminate some grades in
two others. Board member Mike
Hutchinson, who opposed the
measure, said it amounted to
“war on the community.”
But Oakland Superintendent
Kyla Johnson- Trammell said
it was a necessary step toward
addressing “serious dilemmas”
facing the district, citing long-term financial challenges
and the high costs of operating a large number of schools
while trying to offer students a quality education.
The district says declining enrollment and attendance
have led to a decrease in revenue, as it faces pressure from
county officials to reduce a $90 million budget shortfall.
(The closures and mergers could save Oakland schools
$4 million to $14.7 million annually, according to an anal-
ysis by the district.)
“We’re both addressing not only a financial crisis, but a
quality crisis in terms of reaching our mission and vision
of having high- quality community schools across the dis-
trict,” Johnson- Trammell said.
The measure drew fierce protest from students,
parents, and educators. Many argued the plan will
disproportionately affect Black students in low- income
neighborhoods, taking them away from a familiar school
community and, in some cases, forcing them to attend
a new school farther from home. While Black students
represent 23% of students across the school district,
they make up 43% of students at the schools slated for
closure, according to the local news site Oaklandside.
“Instead of investing time to close down schools that
serve majority Black and brown students, invest your
time as a district to build community and to empower
students,” Samantha Pal, a student director on the OUSD
board of education, said during the meeting. “This is a
school district and not a business.”Other schOOl districts around the country are
facing similar issues. Dee tracked an unprecedented
decline in public-school enrollment during the pandemic
and found that public K-12 schools lost roughly
1.1 million students in fall 2020, with enrollment declines
concentrated in districts that started the year with
remote-only learning.
Total public-school
enrollment in the U.S. fell 3%
in the 2020–21 school year
compared with the previous
year, according to the National
Center for Education Statistics.
Marguerite Roza, director
of Georgetown’s Edunomics
Lab, which studies education
finance, says Oakland’s school-
closure plan is “a glimpse
of what’s coming for a lot of
districts,” as she sees many
losing students and stretching
limited resources across too
many schools.
Chicago public schools saw
a 3% enrollment drop for the
2021–22 school year, compared
with 2020–21. The district
had nearly 439,000 students
in 2002–03; now it has about
330,000. St. Paul public schools in Minnesota saw en-
rollment fall 6.3% this school year, and the school board
voted to close six schools.
“A lot of districts right now are holding on to some of
their federal relief money and using it to kind of backstop
these cuts,” Roza says, referring to the $190 billion
given to schools in COVID-19 relief packages passed by
Congress. “And that money is going to run out.”
When it does, more schools could face drastic budget
decisions, and students will be most affected.
Dee says it’s important to pay attention to where
students are sent after their schools close—whether they
are sent to high-quality schools with better resources or
to lower- performing schools that lack necessary funding
to accommodate that infux.
“Simply speaking of closures without talking about
thoughtful strategies for reinvestment in these vulnerable
children would be problematic,” he says. 6
THE BRIEF OPENER
‘We’re bothaddressingnot only afinancialcrisis, but aquality crisis.’
—KYLA JOHNSON-TRAMMELL,
SUPERINTENDENT, OAKLAND
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTThe Brief is reported by Eloise Barry, Madeleine Carlisle, Tara Law, Sanya Mansoor, Ciara Nugent, Billy Perrigo, and Olivia B. Waxman