LGC: Transportation: Schools

Without question, education is a critical component of a livable community. The quality of a community's schools is often one of the key factors that determine where a family – especially one with children – will decide to live. The deterioration of many schools in older parts of our communities is often cited as one of the principal reasons for families to move to the suburbs.

At the same time, over the past decades schools have grown in size and have lost their role as community centers. Modern trends in the size and location of public schools have led communities away from neighborhood schools and toward large schools often located along busy streets on the suburban edge, a phenomenon critics refer to as "school sprawl.''

While philosophies promoting larger schools took hold 40 years ago, trends toward siting schools in isolated, disconnected locales on the urban fringe have been pushed by state department of education policies that set minimum acreage standards for schools. Their spending policies often dramatically favor new school construction over preservation of older facilities.

Lost in this evolution has been students' ability to walk or bicycle to school. Also lost is the opportunity for schools to anchor neighborhoods and for their gymnasiums, playing fields and other facilities to be used in off hours by community members. At risk is the preservation of historic buildings that give a community a sense of place and history. Even the quality of education could hang in the balance.

Studies have shown that the trend toward fewer, larger schools could be counterproductive. Despite claims to the contrary, research shows students perform better in smaller schools where they can more easily develop relationships with faculty and classmates. A review of research on school size undertaken for the New Rules Project in Washington, DC, reveals that small schools are better and safer. Students perform better in small schools. Kids in small schools have higher attendance rates and are more likely to graduate. Significantly, the impact of poverty on school performance is significantly reduced when children attend small schools. The bigger the school, the more likely poor students are to fail. Meanwhile, supposed efficiencies and benefits of consolidated schools – a more diverse curriculum, better facilities, or reduced operating costs – don't always materialize.

Statistics on school size coincide with figures on students' mode of transportation to and from school. For instance, today only 10 percent of all trips to school are made by bicycling or walking – a 40 percent drop from the 1980 rate. At the same time, the number of schools in the nation has not kept pace with population growth. Between 1940 and 1990, the number of elementary and secondary schools decreased from 200,000 to 62,000 despite a 70 percent rise in population. In the last decade alone, the number of high schools with more than 1,500 students doubled. Two-fifths of the nation's secondary schools now enroll more than 1,000 students, while enrollments of 2,000 to 3,000 are common.

A study by the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League showed that students are four times more likely to walk to schools that were built before 1983 than those built since 1983. The newer schools are typically located farther from community centers, with busing or driving seen as the sole means of transportation. According to the study, even children who live within 1.5 miles must be "hazard bused'' because of wide busy thoroughfares, the lack of sidewalks and other impediments.

States like California, with its Safe Routes to School funding program, are combating this trend by funding infrastructure improvements on routes that link neighborhoods to schools. The CDC and the California Department of Health Services promote an annual Walk To School Day, and related programs.

Along with a movement for smaller schools are efforts to create schools that are neighborhood anchors and centers of activity day and night. Case studies include schools where the gymnasium doubles as a public fitness center in the evening, where school yards double as city parks, where county libraries are adjacent to a high school, school auditoriums are used by the community, and day care, health clinics and other social services are located on school campuses. Such efforts often take coordination of the local school district, county and city. Locating schools in central locations also takes intergovernmental coordination.

LGC Projects

In 2001 the Local Government Commission partnered with the National Association of Realtors (TM) to develop a document on how schools could be used to revitalize older neighborhoods. New Schools for Older Neighborhoods: Strategies for Building Our Communities' Most Important Assets (PDF, 2.9 MB) profiles five communities – in big cities and small towns – who created new schools in older neighorhoods.

Resources

The LGC’s Ahwahnee Principles for Smart Economic Development includes a section on the role of education in a sustainable community. It addresses human investment by asserting that "human resources are so valuable especially in the information age, [that] communities should provide lifelong skills and learning opportunities by investing in excellent schools, post-secondary institutions, and opportunities for continuous education and training available to all." The chapter chronicles successful school partnerships and training programs in California. [Go to guidebook]

Do you want to make it safer for kids to walk and bike to school? A four-page fact sheet on Safe Routes to School programs and legislation is available on our web site in PDF format. Also see our "Transportation Tools to Improve Children's Health and Mobility" fact sheet.

Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School, a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, November, 2000. Available on line at: http://www.nthp.org/issues/schools/index.html.

Web Links

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) (http://www.edfacilities.org/)
ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education (http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/)
New Schools, Better Neighborhoods (http://www.nsbn.org)
California School Facilities Planning Division (http://www.cde.ca.gov/facilities)
U.S. Department of Education, School Construction and Design (http://www.ed.gov/inits/construction/)