POPULATION GROWTH AND EDUCATION
America's Schools Are Bursting At The Seams
U.S. school enrollment is at an all-time high. At 53.1 million students, current enrollment has even exceeded the record set in 1970 by the baby boomers. In just the past ten years, enrollment has increased by 14 percent.1
Across the nation, schools are struggling to meet the needs of growing student populations. In county after county, students must attend classes in portable classrooms and eat lunch in staggered schedules starting as early as 10:30 to ease the strain on crowded cafeterias. In some areas, sports leagues can’t find room for all the kids who 
want to participate. Teachers report that they don’t have enough time to assist students who need extra help, and many students are getting lost in the crowd. Almost three out of four adolescents attend high schools larger than 1,000 students.
And at the same time that they are struggling to find more space and teachers, school systems must still meet basic educational challenges, like reducing dropout rates, raising academic achievement levels, increasing teacher effectiveness, and meeting the needs of an increasing share of non-English-speaking students. Yet rather than being used to improve the quality of education for current students, communities’ limited tax dollars are instead being diverted to build new schools to accommodate population growth.
No Relief In Sight
After remaining relatively stable between 2005 and 2010, the number of school-age children is expected to increase steadily for the remainder of the century. Enrollment will reach 55 million by 2020 and 60 million by 2030.2
By 2100, the nation’s schools will have to find room for 94 million students–nearly double the number of school-age children the nation has now.3
“These coming generations of children will require many more public resources, including a major investment in the construction, modernization and renovation of school facilities, many of which are already overcrowded and in disrepair,” warns the U.S. Department of Education.4 Nationwide, more than 2 million new teachers will need to be hired in the next decade.5
Overcrowding at Crisis Levels
The coming student population explosion poses daunting challenges for schools already overwhelmed by classroom crowding and teacher shortages.
Education researchers agree that ideal enrollments are no more than 300 students for an elementary school, no more than 500 for a middle school, and 600 to 900 for a high school.6 Yet already, 71 percent of all U.S. high school students go to schools larger than 1,000 students.7 High schools with 3,000 or more students are now common in large cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Some schools have as many as 5,000 students.8
Studies show that smaller schools are measurably better than large ones. Smaller schools have higher attendance rates, lower drop-out rates, less violence, less student alcohol and drug abuse, and higher grades and test scores.9 10 Small schools have been shown to be particularly helpful to inner-city students, especially African-American and Latino students and students from low-income families.11
Yet population growth makes putting smaller schools into practice virtually impossible. “Would (smaller schools) make sense instructionally? Would everybody love it? Sure,” said one assistant school superintendent. “Then you look at the demands of the rising population and the demands of space. Frankly, where do you put schools?”12 Faced with just that dilemma, school districts nationwide are building schools on or near polluted and toxic sites, reports the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice.13
• About 14 percent of schools exceed their capacity by six to 25 percent, and eight percent exceed it by more than 25 percent.14
• To alleviate overcrowding, 36 percent of schools use portable classrooms, and one-fifth hold classes in temporary instructional space, such as cafeterias and gyms.16
• In Mesa, Arizona, schools have even run out of room for classroom trailers, so 700 elementary school students attend classes in an old grocery store. “Our population is just booming, and we needed to get kids in classrooms,” says the school district’s construction director. The district already has 550 trailers and is building two schools a year to accommodate its enrollment increase of 1,000 new students every year. Officials are considering using an old strip mall and a vacant semiconductor manufacturing plant to house more students.17
• In Raleigh, N.C., 1,200 middle school students attend classes in a converted manufacturing facility that used to make medical supplies.18
• In Warrensville Heights, Ohio, some kindergartners have storefront classrooms in an old shopping center across the street from a racetrack.19
• Students in one Kansas City school attend class in what used to be the boys’ bathroom.20
• In Prince William County, Virginia, one high school’s hallways are so crowded that it now has traffic lanes. The county adds another 1,500 new students each year.21
• In Florida, schools are so overcrowded that legislators are considering paying students to go to private schools instead of public ones.
• Every three days, the Elk Grove, California school system gets enough new students to fill a high school classroom.22
• The Los Angeles school district, the second largest in the country, projects a shortfall of 85,900 desks within the next six years when enrollments are expected to rise from 711,000 students in 2000 to about 750,000 students by 2005. Already in some classrooms, there are twice as many children as there are desks. School officials predict they will have to build 100 new schools in the next 10 years and need to hire an additional 4,000 teachers every year through at least 2005.25
• In the last 10 years, Las Vegas, Nevada, has seen its school enrollment double from 100,000 students to more than 200,000, making the Clark County School District the eighth largest school district in the country. About 18,300 young children will enter first grade there in the coming year, the largest number of students enrolled in any grade. The school population in Las Vegas is slated to continue its rapid increase in the coming decade, requiring the city to build new schools for an additional 150,000 students by 2010.26
• In just five years, Osceola, Fla.’s student enrollment has risen by 25 percent.27
• During the summer of 2001, Hernando County, Fla.’s enrollment increased by the population of one full elementary school.28
• Many California schools are using “traveling teachers”—teachers with no classrooms, forced to wander from room to room each day. Teachers and administrators alike complain that the practice cuts down on preparation time and leaves teachers in unfamiliar rooms without supplies. In Los Angeles, school officials estimate that most middle schools and high schools have 15 to 20 percent of teachers switching classrooms throughout the day. At the most crowded schools, 30 percent of teachers don’t have permanent rooms.29
• In Fairfax, Va., elementary schools have 591 fewer classrooms than are needed to accommodate student enrollment—a deficit that is projected to grow to 745 classrooms—or 21 full elementary schools—by 2005. Middle schools will be short the equivalent of five full schools.30
• In Utah, school enrollment is expected to increase by 100,000 in the next decade—more than twice the number originally estimated.31
• Some colleges are housing students in hotels to accommodate record high enrollments. Dartmouth College was forced to offer freshmen free room and board for a year if they would defer enrollment until the following fall.32
FOOTNOTES
1. U.S. Department of Education
2. U.S. Department of Education, “Growing Pains: The Challenge of Overcrowded Schools is Here to Stay,” 2000.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. "Baby Boom Echo Busts Schools,” CBS News, August 26, 2000.
6. Valerie Strauss, “A Case for Smaller Schools,” The Washington Post, August 8, 2000.
7. Ibid.
8. Sandy Louey, “Schools Learn: Growing is a Pain,” Sacramento Bee, Aug. 12, 2001.
9. Michael Klonsky, “Small Schools: The Numbers Tell a Story,” Small School Workshop.
10. Keith Sharon, “Behind the Curve,” The Orange County Register, May 21, 2001.
11. Klonsky, op. cit.
12. Strauss, op. cit.
13. Greg Toppo, “Report: Schools Built on Polluted Sites,” Associated Press, March 19, 2001.
14. National Center for Education Statistics, “Condition of American Public School Facilities: 1999.”
15. U.S. Department of Education, op. cit.
16. National Center for Education Statistics, op. cit.
17. Haya El Nasser, “Schools Forced to Roam in Search of More Room,” USA Today, August 18, 2000.
18. Michael Collins, “Nation’s Infrastructure Needs $1.3 Trillion in Improvement Over Next Five Years, Report Finds,” Naples Daily News, March 9, 2001.
19. "Report: U.S. Infrastructure Faring Poorly," Associated Press, March 8, 2001.
20. Collins, op. cit.
21. Dan Eggen, “Schools Crux of Debate Over Growth Limits,” The Washington Post, April 12, 1998.
22. Louey, op. cit.
23. Klonsky, op. cit.
24. Strauss, op. cit.
25. U.S. Department of Education, op. cit.
26. U.S. Department of Education, op. cit.
27. Pamela Mercer, “Schools Bursting at Seams,” Orlando Sentinel, August 26, 2001.
28. Robert King, “Enrollment Surprises Schools,” St. Petersburg Times, August 28, 2001.
29. Duke Helfand, “In the Classroom: Have Books, Must Travel,” Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2001.
30. Daniel A. Domenech, “Without Sales Tax, Schools Can't Keep Up,” Washington Post, August 30, 2001.
31. “Alpine Schools Expect Crowds,” Daily Herald, August 18, 2001.
32. Amy Argetsinger, “An Oversupply of Undergrads,” Washington Post, August 27, 2001.