Almost half of the school buildings in San Diego’s biggest district have way fewer students than they were designed to hold.
It’s just another example of the student enrollment decline our Jakob McWhinney has been tracking closely. He got his hands on a report San Diego Unified officials initially denied existed.
About half of San Diego Unified schools are operating at less than 70 percent capacity. San Diego Unified doesn’t seem to have a capacity target for its buildings to compare that to. But a study done in Chicago deemed any school building with less than 70 percent the building’s capacity “underutilized.”
Twenty seven schools are less than half full, McWhinney writes. Apparently the district’s top leader didn’t know about the findings until our reporter asked them.
Read more about his findings here.
GOP Supe’s Anti-Tax Push Backfires
Republican County Supervisor Jim Desmond’s proposal to block county lobbying for potential tax hikes backfired on Tuesday.
The county has a lobbying plan that guides its positioning on state and federal legislation. Desmond wanted to update that plan to proactively oppose any potential legislation that could end up increasing taxes in one of two ways: property document transfer and payroll. The idea followed a now-canceled county callout for bids from lobbyists who might help the county push for those reforms that Desmond previously pounced on.
Democratic Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer had a plan of her own Tuesday – and a Democratic board majority to back her up. Lawson-Remer and Democrats instead updated the lobbying plan to oppose “tax giveaways for the rich” and “seek state authority to ask voters to support new taxes on Californians that have benefited the most from our economy.”
Related: A joint push by Desmond and fellow Republican Supervisor Joel Anderson to host a non-county funded public Semiquincentennial Celebration on July 4 at Waterfront Park also didn’t go as the two hoped. While the board’s three Democrats ultimately approved the plan, both Republicans opposed their own pitch after Supervisor Paloma Aguirre added amendments that could allow the county to reject donations from organizations with affiliations it deems unsavory. All supervisors emphasized that they want the event to be inclusive.
Despite Trump Tightening Purse Strings, San Diego Fared OK With Fed Help
Despite the whacking and thwacking of federal financial support to various institutions Americans rely upon – San Diego actually survived the worst of the storm.
New data shows the total dollar amount San Diego County businesses, governments, schools and nonprofits got from the feds didn’t change much between the Biden administration’s final year and the second Trump administration’s first. And San Diego – with its many military installations and research and development outlets – gets a LOT of federal money, as much as the Greater Seattle area, which has a quarter more residents than San Diego County.
But when the data is spread across federal departments, the numbers start to show President Donald Trump’s changes. Surprisingly, the Department of Defense inherited a few billion dollars less. And Department of Education funding actually increased substantially – thanks to how the state of California redistributes federal money.
Check out a more in depth look at the numbers here.
In Other News
- Opinion: A water attorney makes the case for desalination – and our region’s decision to invest in that water supply. Read more here.
- San Diego County’s got a new digital tool tracking progress on tackling the homelessness crisis. (ABC 10)
- Dust off your paraguas, the swing toward cool weather signals rain is on the horizon through Wednesday. (NBC 7)
- People really hate the new parking charges at Balboa Park so much, they’ve been breaking the kiosks the city recently set up to collect the fees. They’ve suffered a lot of damage since their installment – $77,000 worth, despite the fact that the city set these up to help subdue a budget crisis. San Diego Police say information leading to a recent vandalism spree would be rewarded with $1,000. (NBC 7)
- Surfer Magazine featured the pristine, monstro curls surfers experienced at Black’s Beach over the weekend.
- San Diego Football Club unveiled its away jersey Tuesday. It features what looks like shattered glass or static plate tectonics in blue and orange over a white kit. The pattern is supposed to resemble “the shared culture of San Diego and Tijuana…a region defined by connection, creativity and global spirit.”
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafana.