The Oakland Unified School District’s $100 million budget crisis cannot be separated from its $5 billion facilities emergency. These two interconnected financial crises threaten the quality and safety of every student’s education.
As the district wrestles with painful cuts to staff and programs, students learn in buildings that have been neglected for decades. Every dollar cut now deepens the district’s looming facilities emergency.
Given the sheer size of the shortfall, the solution cannot be about just cuts but requires a restructuring of the district’s finances and operations.
The district must cut $100 million from its budget for the 2026-27 school year because it is currently spending $4 million more than it receives each month, which is depleting its cash reserves and risks insolvency and a return to state control.
Long-time Oakland education leader Dr. Denise Saddler, appointed Interim Superintendent by the school board has warned of the painful cuts ahead to OUSD. (Picture from OUSD)
Superintendent Denise Saddler has warned this will cause “significant pain” and that “People we know and care about will lose their jobs.” The district’s recently regained local control is under threat.
What makes this financial crisis even more alarming is that it’s happening at the same time as a deferred maintenance liability of over $5 billion that has no clear funding solution. Every dollar that’s cut from the operating budget makes it harder to address the physical conditions in our schools and students’ direct learning environments.
The urgency of this moment hasn’t been lost on outside oversight authorities. Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro has issued harsh critiques of the board’s inaction. In an early November letter to the board, she described a “troublingly familiar pattern of deferring difficult decisions” and that the budget the board approved was really just a “plan to have a plan.”
The delays have had devastating consequences for school facilities, where the lead crisis at Thurgood Marshall Academy represents just one symptom of disinvestment. The recent replacement of Chabot Elementary’s roof after 70 years (against a 20-year standard replacement cycle) shows how decades of patching problems has created a massive liability. Student safety is at risk in these neglected facilities every day.
(Left) Students at EBIA working on a science project. (Right) YuMing students celebrating their academic achievement!
Despite this dire need for facility repair funds, the OUSD board recently voted to deny two public charter schools, Yu Ming and EBIA, the ability to apply for state Proposition 2 funds. Proposition 2, passed by California voters in 2024, provides funding specifically for charters to rehabilitate aging district facilities. It was a long term opportunity to upgrade OUSD facilities for decades to come.
This decision turned away a potential $20 million of public funds for critical repairs and safety upgrades. This action blocks Oakland parents, who pay taxes and parcel taxes and often have students in public charters and district schools, from accessing these public funds for public school facilities.
The district’s financial mismanagement is under a microscope. The county has noted that OUSD is spending $4 million more than it receives each month. To address the deficit, the board approved an early retirement incentive plan, hoping to save money by encouraging senior staff to resign.
The board also implemented a hiring freeze. It is now on District staff to come up with budget scenarios that cut $100 million, primarily through central office restructuring and contract reductions, while attempting to protect school sites from the deepest impacts.
There is a slight glimmer of positive news. For the first time in eight years, OUSD has seen an increase in student enrollment, which boosts state funding. Student attendance rates have also improved, which is crucial for revenue.
However, any gains are overshadowed by the immense budget gap. The board faces decisions in the coming weeks that will determine not just which programs to cut or restructure, but whether the district can begin addressing the parallel crisis of crumbling infrastructure.
Families and students are a critical voice in this process. Our voices must not be sidelined in a process that will directly shape the future of our children’s schools and their safety. We cannot allow our children’s learning environments to deteriorate further while the board rejects available funding solutions. The $5 billion facilities crisis demands immediate attention and solutions, not more delays and rejected opportunities.
The district presented budget-cutting scenarios at a special meeting on November 19. There is a Special Board meeting on December 3 to deliberate on budget solutions, and a final vote by the board is scheduled for December 10. What remains unclear is how OUSD will address both crises simultaneously — or if addressing one will require sacrificing progress on the other.
