The California Department of Education
estimates that in 2002 there were almost 1,000 Critically Overcrowded
Schools in California, housing more than one million children—90
percent are students of color, nearly two-thirds of whom are Latino.
The state’s overcrowding definition underestimates the scale
of the problem by not counting all children affected by overcrowding. Over
half of the students in Multi-Track Year-Round Education in 2002—about
500,000 students—attended schools that were not officially considered
to be overcrowded. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of students in old
portable classrooms or those bused away from their home schools because
of lack of space are not fully counted as attending overcrowded schools.
Multi-track education, portables, and busing are used to increase a school’s
capacity to accommodate overcrowding.
Students on a multi-track system have lower academic achievement
and limited access to remedial, enrichment, or extracurricular activities.
For example, in 2004, 57 percent of elementary schools, 62 percent
of middle schools, and 72 percent of high schools on multi-track ranked
in the lowest
three deciles on the Academic Performance Index test scores.
If schools on multi-track were added to the overcrowding definition,
the overall number of students attending overcrowded schools would
increase to 1.5 million, or 25 percent of the state’s public school
enrollment. Counting students housed in portable classrooms and those
being bused to
other neighborhoods would add even more.
More resources are needed to address overcrowding. The new Critically
Overcrowded Schools (COS) Program set aside $4.1 billion to build new
schools to reduce overcrowding. This is an important step, but is far
below what
is needed from the state to meet the need—cost estimates of fully
implementing the current COS policy could require as much as $18 billion
in state funds.
Despite the presence of the COS program, the state’s New
Construction program does not respond effectively to school districts
with overcrowded schools. Program rules are designed to respond to new
population
growth, not to address existing overcrowding, making it difficult for
many school districts with overcrowded schools to receive funding for
building
new schools.
The state can better address overcrowding by:
Changing the funding
rules so that districts with overcrowded schools receive
their fair share of New Construction funds;
Increasing resources dedicated specifically
to overcrowded schools and ensuring that the COS program
is working properly;
Developing a comprehensive assessment of overall need; and
Examining
and removing funding barriers for building new schools.
The Department of Finance estimates that the school age population
in California will hold steady over the next 5 to 7 years, and then
increase sharply between 2013 and 2024. The next few years provide a
perfect window
of opportunity to invest resources to overcrowded schools and erase
the school facilities deficit in the state.
