Over a million California schoolchildren—predominantly from low-income families and communities of color—attend severely overcrowded schools. Lunchrooms, libraries, and an assortment of other spaces are used as classrooms and attempts are made to alleviate overcrowding by such temporary measures as reorganizing—even shortening—school years, busing children to other neighborhoods, and using portable classrooms. But the fact remains that children who attend overcrowded schools are less able to learn, feel socially inferior and alienated, and are more exposed to health and safety hazards.
Though promising developments in California—including legislation focused on critically overcrowded schools, voter-approved bond measures for school construction, and landmark educational equity lawsuits—have paved the way toward addressing overcrowding in a meaningful, lasting way, structural barriers continue to undermine effective, equitable funding for new school construction.
Ending School Overcrowding in California: Building Quality Schools for All Children, a joint report from PolicyLink and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), illustrates California’s school overcrowding crisis, analyzes the state’s New Construction and Critically Overcrowded Schools programs, discusses structural barriers to addressing school overcrowding, and outlines policy recommendations for more equitable distribution of school construction funds.
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