Fewer students enrolled in L.A. Unified - Classrooms shrink by the thousands for the fifth straight year as parents opt for charter campuses or to move to more affordable areas.
The number of students enrolled in Los Angeles public schools has dropped again for the fifth consecutive year in a trend that has affected school districts throughout Southern California, education officials reported Thursday.
Driven largely by lower birthrates and a real estate market that has priced out many families, the decline in enrollment translates to heavy cuts in funding for public schools, officials say.
Compared with last year, 20,285 fewer students are now filling Los Angeles Unified School District classrooms. With the total number of students pegged at 653,215, L.A. Unified remains second only to New York City in national enrollment, yet it stands far below where it was only a few years ago when its student body topped 700,000.
The loss for L.A. Unified, once again, meant a gain for the explosive charter school movement; thousands of students continue to leave traditional district schools each year in favor of the independently run charter campuses. Twenty-three charter schools opened within the district's boundaries this year, a dramatic increase that helped boost charter school enrollment by 17%, to a total of nearly 41,000 students.
Unlike previous years, L.A. Unified officials accurately planned for this year's tally. In 2005, they were caught off-guard when 20,000 children left the district.
"There are no surprises here," said Roger Rasmussen, the district's budget director.
In California, enrollment and attendance figures are the primary factors involved in determining school funding for the following school year. This year's decline will mean a roughly $100-million loss for L.A. Unified in 2008, Rasmussen said.
L.A. Unified is hardly alone in feeling the pinch, however, as school officials throughout Southern California anticipate that enrollment will continue to fall for the next several years.
For example, the Long Beach Unified School District lost nearly 2,000 students compared with last year, and the overall student count has dropped nearly 10% over the last four years.
In Pasadena, 700 fewer students showed up for classes this year. "There are just fewer students out there, but we also have seen an astronomically huge increase in the cost of homes," said Jacqueline Cochran, assistant superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District.
