Quote:
Originally Posted by wac_432
We probably need to be realistic about closing and consolidating schools--there are going to be fewer children in the future due to demographic trends, and we have a lot of schools which are on their last legs (low enrollment, abysmal test scores) because engaged parents have already pulled their kids out of these bad schools.
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Hmm, I don't know about this. The analysis I've heard is that part of what offsets the exodus from Ventura County is natural births. Take for instance Oxnard. It's a young city with the median age somewhere in the 30s. Families are here and will stay because jobs in agriculture, the service industry, manufacturing, tourism, and others continue need young people and people who can live on modest incomes. My takeaway from the article was that housing unavailability and un-affordability was partly to blame for hampering business growth. Ventura County's dark underbelly, of course, is that workers and families are doubling- and tripling-up to make it financially. This is causing overcrowding in R1 neighborhoods that were never designed for the density, i.e. south Oxnard and west Ventura.