There is a certain kind of anger that builds up over time. It doesn’t come with a press conference or a protest. It comes out in a complaint letter, at a school board meeting, or when a child is quietly pulled out of a classroom. Of course, this is how many California families feel, and school districts like San Jose Unified School District are right in the middle of it.
San Jose Unified is one of the bigger urban districts in the Bay Area. It serves tens of thousands of students in a city that is both one of the world’s richest tech hubs and home to many working-class neighborhoods. Just that contradiction makes it hard to run the district. There are also ongoing arguments about the curriculum, fairness, parental rights, and religious freedom, which makes it much harder to see the big picture.
California has long been seen as a leader in public education reform, with programs that increase access, change the curriculum, and fund wellness programs for students. All of that is true, and some of it has really helped. But there’s a growing tension beneath that story. It’s possible that the state’s belief in its own educational vision has made it less willing to work with families who have different ideas.
One of the most heated issues right now is the question of religious education. Families in California who are in homeschool programs through charter schools have hit a brick wall. The state does not allow religious lessons or materials to be paid for with public money. In some cases, students have not been given credit for work that shows a religious viewpoint. One family was reportedly kicked out of a charter school for choosing a different curriculum. These aren’t just general policy disagreements. These choices have real effects on real children and real families.
This is the bigger picture of how California works that San Jose Unified works within. The message from the state can seem condescending to families in the district who have strong religious beliefs. There are a lot of them, from Christian, Catholic, Muslim, and other faiths. At this point, it’s still not clear if district-level administrators always get that at home.
But things are changing in the legal world. In Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court made it clear that states cannot keep families from getting public money just because they want to go to a religious school or follow a religious curriculum. That is now clear law. Still, some California officials either don’t seem to know about it or don’t want to change. A lot of the anger right now comes from the difference between what courts have said in the past and what people actually do.
When you look at this from the outside, it’s hard not to notice how stubborn schools are being. When things are going well, districts and state agencies tend to move slowly. People usually fight back much harder when the change they want means less control over how public money goes to different groups, especially religious ones.
Like most big city school districts, San Jose Unified is trying to serve a diverse population with few resources and many needs. That’s not nothing. The teachers are doing a great job. Administrators have real issues to deal with. However, families who want more freedom are not against public schools. A lot of them think it’s true. Also, they think they know their kids better than anyone else on the curriculum committee.
There is a version of this story where districts find ways to respect family choice without giving up on accountability. In the coming years, San Jose Unified and other districts like it will help answer the question of whether California gets there or goes even further.
