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Alameda County · California

Oakland, CA public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Oakland Unified — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Oakland Unified is the primary public district for Oakland, CA. It enrolls 34,149 students in 82 schools with 1,808 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $21,806 per pupil, 26% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
34,149NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
82Operating school count
Students per teacher
18.9Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$21,806Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Oakland

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
41.5%
$369,145,000
State revenue
43.4%
$386,130,000
Federal revenue
15.1%
$134,288,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Oakland property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 50 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Oakland numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

At $21,806 per pupil the district spends 26% more than the $17,320 metro median, outspending 77% of the districts covered. Instruction takes 51 cents of each dollar — $11,002 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 41.5% local, 43.4% state — so both the local tax base and the CA aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 15.1% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

34,149 students across 82 schools averages 416 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 18.9 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 3.7 students more per teacher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Oakland Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Oakland city limits and these figures describe that wider area. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Oakland datasets on this site.

Statewide: California cities · California ZIP codes · California sales tax · California counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 0628050. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.