–If proposed in a political and historical vacuum, the recommendation from the 711 Committee for the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District to consider closing Georgia Brown Elementary School would likely be met with less concern. While serving in city government, I never saw a neighborhood welcome a school closure, but this is different.
The school district is charged with providing a “free and appropriate education” (education code legal term of art) to all of our students. As taxpayers, we demand that the district provide this education to our students as efficiently as possible. There is a national trend of declining enrollment in public schools as the average family size gets smaller, due to people waiting longer to have children and simply the cost of having children. Any parent of school children can attest that they are expensive.