Low birth rate, high housing prices blamed

[tribune]

Schools report enrollment drop

By Michelle Rester , Staff Writer

Soaring housing prices and a low birth rate have created drops in school enrollment throughout the San Gabriel Valley.
It is a trend expected to continue throughout the decade, forcing school superintendents to wring their hands in worry about the loss of money and programs.

The 8,300-student Glendora Unified School District has lost about 120 students each year over the last couple years and officials expect to lose another 100 this year and each year after through 2010.

"It is troublesome for us,' said Glendora Superintendent George Mannon. "We are in a declining enrollment and I point that out constantly. So far we have handled it very well, but it is a problem and we all need to be aware of it.'

There are no plans to close schools or cut programs in the near future, but Glendora and other districts plan to start the new school year with fewer teachers as a result. It's usually one teacher for every 20-30 students.

Glendora-based Realtor Marty Rodriguez said she doesn't have as many younger couples as she used to that were able to buy homes in the city, where the average house costs about $500,000.

"First-time buyers or younger families can't afford to live in North Glendora,' Rodriguez said. "Those who can afford it have kids that are grown. Or they don't have kids and both husband and wife work, and they buy the smaller, two-bedroom houses.'

Because Walnut and Diamond Bar are affluent areas, school officials believe the high cost of housing is a top reason why enrollment has also decreased by about 1 percent at the elementary school level. Enrollment has stayed the same at the middle schools and actually increased in the high schools, leading some to believe that it is just the more settled families with older children that can afford homes in the 14,820-student Walnut Valley Unified School District.

"We have seen a trend toward families moving in with older students,' said Dean Conklin, assistant superintendent of elementary education. "I don't think we're very worried about it now ... but for the long-term, we're watching the numbers carefully.'

Even less affluent areas like El Monte have seen a drop in the number of students expected to start school in the coming weeks.

Mountain View School District officials expect to have as many as 200 fewer students this year in their district of 10,400 students, and also attribute the loss to a combination of housing costs and lower birth rates.

Loss of students means a loss of income between $4,500 and $4,600 per student per year. And that hurts, even though districts might balance that out by reducing staffing.

"It's hard to put a finger on the reason for the decline, other than birth rates going down, housing costs and the economy,' said John Stoddard, assistant superintendent of business services for the Mountain View School District.

"An example: a young couple might rent here but find the rates have lowered and they can afford to buy a new house in Corona or Riverside for less than they can rent here. It all has an impact. What we do know is we try to provide real strong, quality programs ... and we find the students we do have come to school on a regular basis.'

Michelle Rester can be reached at [phone], Ext. 2127, or by e-mail at [e-mail] .


www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205~12220~2328994,00.html

[River]

Frist of all, Marty Rodriguez has a nerve! She was against the Monrovia Project because she wanted only large million dollar homes built there. According to the article, she is stating that people are buying the smaller homes right now.

Second, I think that this article is stating a good thing. It means that peole are having less children. With a World population that is growing out of control, it is a good thing for people to choose to not have as many children. I hope the trend continues. Also, with the pressure of people moving into California, it is a good thing that the people who are already here are helping to reduce the pressure on the system and environment by having less children.

It is an interesting trend. Maybe we can go back to looking at children as being children and not something to be worshiped. No offense, I just think our society goes too far sometimes. I'm hoping that this trend will eventually result in people having more respect for our elderly.

[McLite]

Guest-River said:

Marty Rodriguez has a nerve! She was against the Monrovia Project because she wanted only large million dollar homes built there. According to the article, she is stating that people are buying the smaller homes right now.

I don't mean to be picky, and I'm no fan of Rodriguez, but you're sort of misquoting her on both counts.

Rodriguez's position on Monrovia Nursery was that she felt there were too many condominium-type dwellings in the proposal. She was critical that there were no larger, one-story offerings, and that the largest amount of the detached homes were on lots averaging 4000 square-foot (let's just say that's significantly smaller than what we have here in MC). I happen to have agreed with her on those points.

However, I voted in favor of the project because I realized that we had fought for the best we were going to get from them, and that overall, the development would be of good quality and a benefit for Azusa. But I never thought the proposal was a divine blessing: It was the result of a negotiation between residents (who wanted the best possible development) and MN (who, let's be real here, wanted to financially benefit as much as possible).

Her statement in the above article regarding the purchasing of smaller homes appears to me as being out of financial or circumstancial necessity for the buyers.

Trust me, I know there is a housing shortage in Southern California. So I know that whatever ends up in MN will sell. Do I think it's "fabulous" that Azusa will be doing more than it's share (I mean among all SGV cities) to absorb that impact? Not exactly. But I think Azusa will be better for having the development move forward.

I just hate to see either side of the MN issue become marginalized into a black&white argument. I hope we have moved past that.

[River]

Actually, what she stated was that she wanted homes like the Marshall Canyon Estates in La Verne's, which are homes that are over a million dollars.

[IslandGirl]

I would like to ask what having less children has to do with "worshiping children". I have a child and I did not know our soceity worshiped him (I sure don't). Also having less of a comodity (sorry kids) makes the comodity more valuable thus " more worshiped". If you have a lot of any one item (little kidletts) the less value and less worshiped, or at least thats the way I see it. And only because my child is spoiled with education it is not wanting to be worshiped I just want him to be able to support his parents (us) in the style I want when the time comes for paybacks.... Maybe he will worship us!
Thats a joke....

[Dubh]

Children are valued less if there are more of them? Only if one doesn't properly value them in the first place.
There are not commodities, extensions of our egos, or a drain on the environment. They are totally unique souls, just like us.

Overpopulation fears are nonsense and based on bogus statistics and "science" with no empirical evidence.
What we do know is that generosity is a good thing, and if we overpopulate ourselves out of existence, we will still have lived well by saying yes to life.

[zeropopulationgrowth]

I disagree with you Dubh,

There is only a limited number of resources in this World. By not caring about the explosion of the World population, it is irresponsible. The result will eventually decrease the quality of life for all of us. This will be more evident evnough very soon, as the drinking water supply diminshes.

People should have enough respect for life to not take it to extremes. Birth control, its a good thing!

www.populationconnection.org/

[Dubh]

To ZPG:
Saw the website you listed and found lots to support my opinion that the overpopulation arguments are based on nonsense.
The population of this country has grown from 175 to 255 million since 1960. True. But people are having fewer kids...so how can this be?... It's called immigration.

Here's more irrefutable science from the population connection:

(A paraphrase:)
"The Cowboy Myth"
This is not a land of endless frontiers. All we need to to do is see the earth in pictures from space to appreciate the fact that the earth is fragile and it's resources are limited.

That's real science... What if I said," Try flying closer to the earth,in a plane, from LA to NYC. How many lakes, rivers, streams, and open, uninhabited land can you see? Surely, there's room for millions more..." Would that be an acceptable argument? And how much can satellite pictures tell us, anyway? We better let NASA know 'cuz they'll want to quit spending money exploring the terrain on Mars.
There was a long essay on that site decrying suburban sprawl. Hope you don't subscribe to those ideas. Otherwise, my next question is: Why do you live in Mtn. Cove?

Birth Control, it's a good thing ??

Birth Control has been the enabler of the Sexual Revolution, which brought us higher infidelity and divorce rates, the promotion of women as objects(more rape), cancer, HIV/AIDS, STD's, endocrine illnesses, an increase in teen promiscuity and pregnancy, and generally removing responsibility from our sexuality.

But that's nothing compared to overpopulation,right?