WCCUSD schools are losing students to charter schools at alarming rate, stressing district budget

First in a two-part series examining West Contra Costa Unified School District student data

After months of watching her 4-year-old daughter struggle with reading, Tomasa Espinoza knew she had to make a change. 

Her older daughter, who attended a charter school, was thriving. So Espinoza pulled her second child out of Washington Elementary in Richmond and enrolled her in a charter school, too. When it came time for her youngest child, her son, to go to school, she sent him straight to a charter school. 

“I want my kids to have something better,” she said in Spanish. “I know charter schools aren’t perfect, but at least I think they’ve helped my children more.”

Espinoza is among many parents who have chosen to enroll their children in charter schools after feeling dissatisfied by the quality of education in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Last year, 1,232 more WCCUSD students were enrolled in charter schools than in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the California Department of Education. Those children account for almost half of the spots abandoned in the district’s schools since 2019-2020.

WCCUSD has more than 25,000 students, but while its enrollment has declined steadily in the past five years, charter school enrollment has done the opposite. The departures have contributed to a public school enrollment crisis,  decreasing WCCUSD’s state funding, which is partly based on average daily attendance, and forcing the need for significant cuts that could threaten programs and classroom resources. 

“The kids are here,” School Board member Leslie Reckler said. “It’s not a supply issue. It’s a capture issue.”

The trends

A Richmond Confidential analysis of Education Department data reveals a decline of 9.4% in enrollment at WCCUSD public schools between 2019 and 2024. The drop, which amounts to 2,654 students, outpaces the 6% statewide decline from 2013 to 2023, as reported by the California Department of Finance.

The decline hasn’t affected all schools equally. At Valley View Elementary School in El Sobrante, for example, the drop has been severe, almost 40%.  A closer look reveals another trend: Black and white students represent a disproportionately large chunk of the declines compared to the percentage of the student population they encapsulate. For example, at Valley View Elementary, Black students made up 15% of the student body, but 25% of the decline in students. 

This reflects a broader demographic shift in Richmond. Over the past two decades, the Black population in the city fell from 36% to 18%, while the number of white residents decreased from nearly a third to just about a quarter of the population.

Two WCCUSD principals said they were instructed by the district not to speak to Richmond Confidential for this story. The district’s interim communications director, Raechelle Forrest, declined to be interviewed, but in an emailed response, acknowledged that the rise in charter schools contributes to declining enrollment.  

“Economic challenges in California and an evolving education landscape with more family choices have all played a role in contributing to a decline in enrollment,” Forrest said. 

Reasons for decline

Public schools across California have faced steady drops in enrollment, driven by lower birth rates that have left the state with fewer school-age children. 

According to data from the Population Reference Bureau, the number of school aged children in Contra Costa County has decreased by 5,000 in the past five years. WCCUSD is one of 18 school districts in the county and accounts for just 6% of public school enrollment. Given that, the district should have lost only a few hundred students, not thousands.

Homeschool and private school options also may explain the decline — but that doesn’t appear to be the case, either. Private school enrollment within the district's boundaries has dropped by 13% since 2019. Homeschooling, too, saw only a modest rise, with just 12 additional students registering between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years, a smaller uptick than the 78% increase statewide, according to a Washington Post investigation. 

In some cases, families have opted to move out of the district. A presentation from a May 2022 WCCUSD School Board meeting showed that during the 2021-2022 school year, 631 students had enrolled in other school districts in California. The following year saw 539 students move away.

That means charter schools are playing a significant role in the district’s enrollment decline. 

Picking up the slack

Charter schools receive government funding like other public schools, but have more operational independence and flexibility.

In WCCUSD, it’s not uncommon for children to transfer between charter and district schools. “Middle school attrition is particularly notable, though hundreds of families return to our high schools each year,” Forrest said. “We believe families are drawn back by the rich student life and robust academic and extracurricular offerings at our comprehensive high schools.”

Nearly half of the drop in the district’s enrollment can be attributed to families opting for charter schools, a shift that has only accelerated in recent years. This trend reflects the growing competition public schools face as more parents like Espinoza seek alternatives for better curriculums to prepare their children for college. 

“My experience wasn’t good. That’s why I ultimately decided my daughter would continue in a charter school, and she stayed there,” Espinoza said. “My third child, I didn’t even think about putting him in a traditional school, precisely because of that. Because they don’t challenge the kids.”  

Libby Richmond, the student recruitment and enrollment manager and family liaison at Richmond's Invictus Academy, the fastest growing of the 14 charter schools in the district, said parents may turn to charter schools if they feel district schools are insufficient but private schools are too expensive.

“I think families are wanting more for their child's education than what they're getting at district schools,” she said. “So they're looking to charter schools to provide something that public schools can’t.”

Last year, 68% of WCCUSD students enrolled at district schools did not pass the state’s mandatory standardized test in English language arts, and 77 % did not pass the mathematics test, according to a report by the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. 

“I think that a lot of students slip through the cracks in public schools,” Richmond said.

Stanford University Research from 2023 shows that California charter schools produced similar test scores in math as their district counterparts, but higher scores in reading.

Reckler suggested the motivation behind the transfers boils down to the district’s reputation in terms of safety, academic success, and feelings of belonging. Families may believe other schools offer better academics or a safer, more supportive environment, prompting them to look elsewhere.

“I think it's a marketing issue,” Reckler said.  

What's ahead?

WCCUSD School Board President Jamela Smith-Folds said the board is working to capture more students.

“We want the district to work ferociously on how to increase enrollment across all of our schools. That means moonshot ideas, thinking outside the box,” she said.

Smith-Folds thinks the first step in combating the decline should be communicating with families to see what attracted them to other schools, and what it would take to get them back. 

“I think that there are a lot of alternative educational choices, and I think that contributes to the decline in public school enrollment,” she said. “What I'm suggesting is, we ask parents why they are not enrolled in the public school, and we try to emulate what they're getting outside of the public school, inside the public school.”

Failure to bring more students into WCCUSD schools could deepen the district’s financial trouble. Next year, if the district does not cut $7 million, it will face a deficit of nearly $15 million. The budget isn’t the only hurdle the district will face in the new year: It also will be looking for a new leader, after Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst announced in September that he will retire at the end of December.

In California, most public school budgets come from state funding that is based on enrollment and attendance. When students transfer to charter schools, the district’s public schools lose state money to the charters. West Contra Costa Unified lost more than $13 million in state aid in the past two budget cycles.

Other Bay Area cities may offer a grim preview of WCCUSD’s future if it can't bring students back. San Francisco’s schools have been in limbo after 11 closures were announced this fall and then reversed in tandem with  the superintendent’s resignation. 

Reckler acknowledged that while school closures aren’t currently on the table, the drop in student enrollment will inevitably bring changes. With fewer students, she said, the district faces higher overhead costs, which could lead to measures like combining multiple grade levels into a single classroom with one teacher. 

Increasing enrollment will require action, Smith-Folds said. “I think for a long time, public school organizations and agencies have taken for granted that people are just going to come to them,” she said. “That’s just not the case anymore. People have choice, and with that choice, we have to make ourselves attractive.”

'They aren't prepared'

Espinoza, like many parents, feels that traditional public schools have failed to prepare her children for the future. With her third child approaching high school, she is anxiously waiting to see if a spot will open up for him at a charter school, many of which have waiting lists. If that doesn’t happen, she is prepared to move him out of the district altogether.

“I don’t know how long it’s been broken, but for at least the 15 years I’ve been dealing with the school system, they haven’t had a clue. And if the people in charge, the educated ones who have been working in the system for so long don’t know how to fix it, then who does?” Espinoza said.

“We need someone who can solve this huge problem. Our kids aren’t ready for university or higher goals. They aren’t prepared.”

(Top photo of Valley View Elementary School by Summer Maxwell. Spanish to English translation by Daniella Jiménez)

Coming Friday: A look at WCCUSD state test scores

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WCCUSD taking action to address projected $7 million deficit