The majority of Manteca Unified’s nearly 26,000 students are Hispanic.
The district’s 54.5 percent Hispanic enrollment almost mirrors that of California public schools overall. Some 56 percent of the state’s 5.8 million K-12 students are Hispanic.
The big departure are for Asians and Whites.
Manteca Unified’s student body is 11 percent Asian compared to 4.3 percent statewide.
Those that identify as White are at 13.2 percent in MUSD compared to 24.7 percent throughout California.
Blacks account for 5.7 percent of the Manteca Unified enrollment and 3.5 percent statewide.
The balance includes 5.4 percent that are Filipino with 5 percent of district students that have other ethnicities.
The MUSD enrollment breakdown was gleaned from the district’s 2025-2026 school year annual report.
The City of Manteca’s ethnic makeup differs slightly from the district overall that includes Lathrop (except River Islands), Weston Ranch in South Stockton, French Camp and rural areas.
Overall 41 percent of Manteca’s population based on the 2020 Census is Hispanic, 35 percent non-Hispanic white, 15 percent Asian-American and 5 percent Black.
Manteca Unified deals
with multiple languages
& is making ESL progress
Manteca Unified has been making significant progress in bringing English as Second Language (ESL) students up to speed in terms of grasping grade level education goals as delineated by the state.
The hardest way to do that, of course, is for such students to learn and gain proficiency in English while at the same time taking classes with the general student population.
The district’s ESL efforts that are essentially pullout programs for students that are not proficient in English have been making solid progress.
Every year, students in large numbers are no longer classified as ESL through all grade levels.
But the biggest gains have come through transitional kindergarten.
Since the district starting offering TK, the number of students entering kindergarten not testing as proficient in English has dropped significantly.
At the same time, students overall — even those not classified as ESL entering TK — has soared at the start of their kindergarten experience as being seen as “ready to learn.”
Going forward that will have major impacts on the ability of students to learn as they head toward the goal of high school graduation.
The top 10 languages that aren’t English that are spoken in MUSD are Spanish, Punjabi, Filipino, Vietnamese, Farsi, Hindi, Arabic, Telugu, Pashto, and Tamil.
Keep in mind there are a number of other languages spoken as well.
That said, at the start of last school year some 19 percent of students were classified as English learners or 5,201 students.
It is also the same year that 12 percent of the 19 percent of the district’s ESL students were reclassified as English-proficient based on state standards.
There was also a:
*2.64 percent increase in math among students receiving English Development Services.
*3.16 percent increase in reading among students receiving English Development Service.
Some 67.3 percent of all students are identified as being socially-economic disadvantaged based on one or more of the following: having a parent that did not graduate from high school, being a migrant, unstable housing conditions, family receiving some form of government assistance, being an English as a Second Language leaner, or being part of low income household.
The district has 29 schools.
It is the third biggest employer in the South County area behind Amazon and Tesla.
The district has 1,460 certificated (teachers, administrators, counselors, etc.) and 1,584 classified workers that serve as support staff for everything from teacher aides, office staff, and food service to custodial and bus driving.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
