West Contra Costa Unified has experienced an expansion of charter schools over the past years. There are currently 14 charter schools with 5,500 students out of the district’s total enrollment of 32,000 This adds $27.9 million a year to WCCUSD costs for running its  own schools and therefore $978 less for each traditional student it serves. WCCUSD Charter oligarchs (billionaires) have made important inroads on the school board— and the union.

The UTR president from 2016 to 2020, Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy, came to WCCUSD through Teach for America, taught for a few years and, out of nowhere, was elected UTR President. Before that, he had been campaign manager for Valerie Cuevas, a charter school candidate who was elected to the WCCUSD School Board. Demetrio’s UTR EBoard endorsed Cuevas in 2018. Cuevas repeatedly voted to expand charter enrollment and to increase charter  funding. The charter lobby spent more than $500,000  to support Cuevas and another candidate. Gonzalez Hoy no longer works for WCCUSD and has been elected to the WCCUSD School Board.

This did not start in 2016. In 2009, UTR leaders explored having the whole district become charter school in order to escape a debt to the state.  Melanie Perkins, UTR Treasurer and Eboard member sent an email, Subject Re: Charter School District. She wrote:   “ … we on the UTR Executive Board brought a proposal to change our district into a charter school district… a few … benefits of this proposal:

1. Charter schools get more money from the state. Rather than having ADA taken off the top… the money goes right to the schools….

2. Teachers and parents will write the charters…  have control over how we teach, materials we use, and how we assess….

3. We would receive $100,000 dollars per school to organize our new     charter school.

4. … that debt that former Superintendent Marks created…goes away.It will stay with whatever is left of the old WCCUSD.

The EBoard Charter proposal was discussed at a Rep Council meeting and dropped after reps voiced opposition.

UTR’s charter support  history has contributed to  charters’  takedown of the local and WCCUSD. So has UTR’s lack of activism and strength. UTR has never gone on strike. “The best strike is the strike you don’t have,” was the mantra of Pixie Hayward- Schiekle, a 30+ year member of the UTR EBoard and leader of the board majority. 

Now the charters have bought big campuses and are seeking to expand.  GO Public Schools, the Oakalnd  group that has fought  for charters there, has started a Contra Costa affiliate. Teachers, we must become active in struggle against charter schools billionaires and their accomplices among  teacher union leaders.

Harriet and Lucy, West Contra Costa