{"id":227149,"date":"2026-03-19T17:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227149\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:05:17","slug":"why-bay-area-schools-are-cutting-jobs-and-closing-campuses-despite-record-state-funding-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227149\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bay Area schools are cutting jobs and closing campuses despite record state funding \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of Bay Area school districts have announced layoffs, budget cuts or school closures this year to repair gaping budget deficits ranging from $6 million to over $100 million.<\/p>\n

Last month, Oakland Unified School District voted to lay off more than 400 staff<\/a>. West Contra Costa Unified School District approved nearly 200 staff layoffs and the merger of two schools<\/a>. San Jose Unified School District is considering closing five elementary schools<\/a>, while the city\u2019s East Side Union High School District moved to cut at least 85 staff positions.<\/a><\/p>\n

But families and advocates have warned closures and cuts can impede students\u2019 academic and social well-being<\/a>, exacerbating struggles to find childcare or reliable transportation and furthering disproportionate impacts on low-income and higher-need students.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A discarded chair on the front lawn of Sylvia Cassell Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Locked<\/p>\n

Locked gate at the entrance of Ramblewood Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Franklin-McKinley School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group) Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The campus of Sylvia Cassell Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The campus of Ramblewood Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Franklin-McKinley School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Picnic<\/p>\n

Picnic tables on the campus of A.J. Dorsa Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 5<\/p>\n

A discarded chair on the front lawn of Sylvia Cassell Elementary School on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. The school has been closed by the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

What sets these latest cutbacks apart from past cycles is that they come at a time when education funding in the state has been steadily increasing. Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s latest budget proposal would pour record-breaking amounts of money into schools<\/a> and increase overall education spending by more than $10 billion<\/a> for the 2026-27 state budget.\u00a0So why are so many districts discussing layoffs and school closures?<\/p>\n

Mike Fine, chief executive officer of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team \u2014 a state agency that helps California schools resolve financial and operational issues \u2014 said it comes down to one reason: declining enrollment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the number-one reason why a school district considers a school closure or a consolidation or some kind of reconfiguration of grades,\u201d Fine said. \u201c(There\u2019s) no other reason to be closing a school other than you\u2019ve got fewer kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

California is seeing that decline in public school enrollment for two key reasons, Fine said: lower birth rates and migration across or out of the state.<\/p>\n

As one of the most expensive areas in the state, the Bay Area has been hit particularly hard, Fine explained, with increased housing costs forcing families out of the region.<\/p>\n

In the last decade, Bay Area school enrollment fell 8%<\/a>, trailing only the Los Angeles and Sierra regions in the percentage of student losses, according to an analysis of the data by the Public Policy Institute of California<\/a>, a nonprofit think tank based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Fine said while student enrollment started to decline as far back as 2004, the pandemic sped up \u201cwhat had been a very gradual decline\u201d as residents left the state and immigration slowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2004-2005, we\u2019ve lost about 500,000 kids, but almost 300,000 of that came during the COVID years,\u201d Fine said.<\/p>\n

Declining enrollment, while it has slowed since the end of the pandemic in 2023, is expected to continue. There were an estimated 6.2 million students enrolled in California public schools<\/a> in the 2019-2020 school year, but the California Department of Finance projects that number will drop to 5.2 million by 2032.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a problem, said Brett Guinan, a research associate for the Public Policy Institute of California, because California funds schools based on the number of students in class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are fewer students, the school gets fewer dollars,\u201d Guinan said. \u201cAnd the way that we count how many students are in a district in California is based on average daily attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

So while school districts in the Bay Area need to staff schools and maintain resources and facilities for every student enrolled in their district \u2014 regardless of if they show up \u2014 the state only funds districts based on how many students are attending class each day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another problem, Guinan said, is that the pandemic increased the number of students considered chronically absent \u2014 meaning they missed 10% or more of the school year, or about 18 school days. Under the current funding formula, schools with a higher rate of chronic absenteeism get less funding \u2014 which often affects disadvantaged students the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have known that students who are high-need have always tended to be more likely to be absent from class,\u201d Guinan said. \u201cFoster youth, homeless students, students with disabilities, low-income students all have higher than average rates of absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not every school district in California is losing money from chronic student absences or declining enrollment, said Carrie Hahnel, a senior associate partner at the education policy nonprofit Bellwether.<\/p>\n

Under California\u2019s funding formula, schools receive a base amount of funding per student, and additional funding for students considered high-need, like English learners, foster youth or low-income students.<\/p>\n

And districts located in areas where local property taxes are higher than what they would have received from the state get to keep the surplus funding and only receive minimal state funding, earning them the nickname \u201cbasic aid\u201d districts. That means they generally do not lose money from student absences.<\/p>\n

About 10-15% of California school districts are considered \u201cbasic aid\u201d districts, and many are located in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

Because of that, only one of the five high-school-only districts in Santa Clara County, East Side Union High School District, relies solely on state funding \u2014 meaning that when it comes time to make cuts, East Side Union students are the most impacted, said the district\u2019s superintendent Glenn Vander Zee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state does not invest at the same level in East Side students than the other high-school-only districts in the county,\u201d Vander Zee said.<\/p>\n

Vander Zee said East Side Union High School District received about $12,000 per student in funding, while other high school-only districts in the county \u2014 including Campbell Union, Fremont Union, Mountain View-Los Altos Union and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union \u2014 received $14,000 to $24,000 per student.<\/p>\n

The district recently approved cutting $6.5 million in annual salary costs through layoffs \u2014 about 85 positions \u2014 to avoid insolvency and address a $25 million budget deficit. Vander Zee said the district is not currently considering closing schools, and credited his board of education\u2019s early retirement incentive and parcel tax as ways the district has been able to tackle its budget deficit.<\/p>\n

Vander Zee acknowledged that even basic aid districts in the Bay Area are struggling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, layoffs and cuts.\u00a0The difference, he said, is that because of California\u2019s inequitable funding formula, East Side Union students are \u201calready underinvested in\u201d when it comes to staffing and personnel, and can\u2019t afford to make additional cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes time for districts like East Side to make cuts, you\u2019re having to cut closer to the lived student experience than in some other districts,\u201d he said. \u201cDistricts that have higher staffing ratios, they are having to make cuts but not get down to the levels of East Side, which is starting with perhaps $10,000 less per student in investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine, from FCMAT, explained that the recent surge in layoffs, school closures and budget cuts from school districts across the region is because districts are at a tipping point where they must finally address declining enrollment after years of drop-off. The expiration of one-time state and federal pandemic funds, as well as inflation and rising expenses has all contributed to increased budget pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early years of those pressures, (districts) had reserves, they had other things that kind of kicks the can down the road and that\u2019s all coming to an end now,\u201d Fine explained. \u201cWhich is why you see them acting, is because they don\u2019t have the same level of reserves they once had.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of Bay Area school districts have announced layoffs, budget cuts or school closures this year to repair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[389,184,94730,16752,7,8,400,185,390,409,392,332,393,15,5564,11005,394,49640,1286,4730,13743,181,23,205,189,190,194,100,143,395,2944,35730,13,385,976,101,396,88,90,89,397,11006,198,199,30515,200,398,43205,399],"class_list":["post-227149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-budget-crisis","tag-budgets","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-campbell","tag-central-contra-costa","tag-city-politics","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-east-bay","tag-east-contra-costa","tag-education","tag-el-cerrito","tag-el-sobrante","tag-fremont","tag-hercules","tag-jobs","tag-k-12-education","tag-kensington","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-los-altos-hills","tag-los-gatos","tag-mountain-view","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-peninsula","tag-photos-and-videos","tag-pinole","tag-politics","tag-regional","tag-richmond","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-san-pablo","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-saratoga","tag-school-boards-measures","tag-south-bay","tag-tri-valley","tag-union-city","tag-west-contra-costa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}