For more than 20 years, Oakland Unified School District asked: How do we get out of state receivership? Now that full local authority is restored, I worry the question has simply become: How do we stay out of it?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the wrong question. Avoiding another takeover is a minimum operating condition, not a vision for excellent and equitable public education. Oaklanders should ask something bigger: What do we want for our children, and how do we use OUSD\u2019s nearly $1 billion annual budget to deliver it?<\/p>\n
Oaklanders are often surprised to learn that, on a per-student basis, OUSD is among the highest funded urban districts in the state. Yet too many students are years behind in reading and math, and too many families lack confidence in their neighborhood schools. The question isn\u2019t whether Oakland\u2019s youth deserve better, but how to build a system that delivers it.<\/p>\n
The future of OUSD is on the ballot. Three incumbent board members seeking reelection have sharply different visions, with voting records to match, while four challengers offer their own visions for change.<\/p>\n
Local responsibility<\/p>\n
This November marks Oakland\u2019s first school board election under full local control since the district accepted a $100 million emergency state loan in 2003.<\/p>\n
As Alameda County superintendent of schools, I helped end that long period of receivership a year early, in June 2025. But getting out of receivership didn\u2019t mean Oakland had solved its educational challenges. I understand why people are confused about who is responsible for what \u2014 and why they sometimes look to my office for answers, and to intervene when they see their schools struggling.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a vital distinction between oversight and governance. My office sets the fiscal floor, and when cracks in the foundation appear, we have both the authority and responsibility to intervene.<\/p>\n
The floor is not the ceiling. The county superintendent does not set Oakland\u2019s educational vision. The elected school board decides which programs to prioritize, hires a district superintendent to carry out that direction, and determines what the district must let go of to make it happen. Voters choose who sits on that board.<\/p>\n
Survival isn\u2019t success<\/p>\n
In the 17 months since appointing a new district superintendent, OUSD\u2019s board leadership has moved to enact cuts and budget adjustments designed to maintain the current number of schools and teachers, while reducing administrative and support staffing. This is a legitimate governing strategy, consistent with commitments these elected officials made to voters. They are doing what they said they would do.<\/p>\n
The equity argument behind this strategy deserves to be taken seriously: School closures can disproportionately disrupt Black and Brown students and communities. But so can cuts to the programs and services those students depend on. Equity can\u2019t be measured only by which schools remain open. It must also be measured by what children experience inside them.<\/p>\n
Among California\u2019s urban districts, Oakland operates far more schools relative to its enrollment than others. Maintaining that structure is a legitimate priority, but not the only possible one. Voters get to decide whether preserving the number of schools should remain the board\u2019s defining commitment.<\/p>\n
Recently, my office conditionally approved OUSD\u2019s 2026\u201327 budget, recognizing improvements in financial planning while requiring action on continuing challenges. But a legally permissible budget is not necessarily sustainable, and a budget can be balanced but not be good for kids.<\/p>\n
A school can remain open while the education it provides gradually diminishes. One position disappears, then a program, then a support service. Each cut may seem manageable. Each year\u2019s budget may look more balanced. But without an explicit standard for what students should experience, we can keep lowering the quality of education without ever making a deliberate decision to do so.<\/p>\n
The next chapter<\/p>\n
For years, school board elections have focused on what should not be cut, closed or changed. Those concerns are legitimate, but an educational vision cannot consist only of a list of things we refuse to change \u2014 especially when so few are satisfied with the status quo.<\/p>\n
Preserving the existing school structure is an affirmative governing choice, with real consequences for students. Voters may support that direction or want something different. Either way, they deserve to understand the tradeoffs \u2014 and ask every candidate what educational experiences they will guarantee.<\/p>\n
Local control was never the ultimate goal. The goal was giving Oakland\u2019s children the education they deserve.<\/p>\n
Alysse Castro was first elected Alameda County superintendent of schools in 2022. Her job includes fiscal oversight of the district\u2019s 18 school districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than 20 years, Oakland Unified School District asked: How do we get out of state receivership?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1400,389,127495,184,7,964,332,15,4730,181,205,100,143,145,144,975,13],"class_list":["post-502149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2026-elections","tag-alameda-county","tag-alameda-county-elections","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-commentary","tag-east-bay","tag-education","tag-k-12-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-opinion","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502149","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=502149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}