At last night’s special School Board meeting at the Robert Frost Auditorium, I heard parental concerns over the perceived conditions of over-crowding, aggravated by the School District’s need for permits. I would like to bring up some factors of the local city governmental policies affecting District permit policies.
- The lack of a continuing informative dialogue between the School District and the city.
- The unforeseen consequences of Prop. 13.
- The lack of a sound, low-cost and affordable housing policy by the city.
These and other factors exacerbate the School District’s need to bring in outside permits from other districts.
Prop. 13 has not only continued to devastate school funding, but, I believe it is now even affecting access to local enrollment in our own district.
Because of their Prop. 13 property tax exemption status, many senior citizens, after raising their children, are now finding it fiscally advantageous to remain in their houses far longer than previous generations. This “staying on” keeps family housing off the local market. It also changes the dynamics of supply and demand in our local housing market, making it more difficult for families with children to purchase affordable housing in Culver City. Making it even more difficult for our School District to replenish its enrollment with local children.
A Reverse Robin Hood
The city needs to quit playing its twisted role of Robin Hood, taking from the poor to service the rich.
The state mandates that the Redevelopment Agency put away 20 percent of its receipts for inclusionary housing. The Redevelopment Agency does so dutifully. But here’s the twist. The city turns around and “borrows” that money from the Agency to balance the city’s budget.
With the same five members on each governmental body, it’s easy for them to look at this “borrowing” as just taking it out of one pocket and putting it into another. But in the last 15 years, this city has “borrowed” more than $30 million. To this day, it has no plans in place to pay it back.
With no plan, it begins to look more like a shell game of thievery to me.
The elected leaders and the public, as shareholders in their children’s education, School Board members and parents should be advocating for city housing policies that would bring more young families into Culver City.
Having the School District resort to letting in more permits to fill out enrollment diminishes community buy-in to our schools and lessens overall community pride.
Though they may be good students, well-behaved and respectful, students on permit just don’t have the same community pride in our schools as the local community.
What Neighborhood Schools Need
Each of these factors has had a long term, accumulative effect on the District’s ability to draw students from its local base when replenishing its enrollment each year.
The affordable housing crunch didn’t happen overnight. And it will not be solved overnight, either. Instead of the District having to rely on inter-district permits to balance its enrollment and funding, city policies should be put in place to help young families move into Culver City, thereby aiding in replenishing our local enrollment with local kids.
