LAUSD Park Access and Schools for Children of Color Living in Poverty with No Access to a Car
In California, 73% of fifth, seventh, and ninth graders did not achieve minimum physical fitness standards in 2004. In LAUSD, 87% of students were not physically fit. Yet in 2006, 51% of school districts studied in California, including LAUSD, did not enforce statutory physical education requirements. At LAUSD’s South Gate High School, 1,600 children took the state Fitnessgram test and not one passed. Forty schools did not have a single physically fit student. Less than 10% of students were physically fit in nearly one-third of the 605 schools in LAUSD. Only eight schools had student populations that are more than 50% physically fit.
The shared use of parks and schools can alleviate the lack of places to play and recreate, while making optimal use of scarce land and public resources. Unfortunately, only 103 out of 605 LAUSD schools have five acres of more of playing fields, as shown in Map 903. Those schools tend to be located in areas that are disproportionately white and wealthy and have greater access to parks. LAUSD provides 71% more play acres for non-Hispanic white students than for Latino students in elementary schools. There were only 30 joint use agreements between LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department as of April 2006. The Olmsted Report and the 2006 audit by City Controller Laura Chick of recreation and parks both call for the shared use of parks and schools.
There are unfair park, school, and health disparities by school district.
Thus, for example, District 1 (LaMotte) in the South Los Angeles has 1.05 net acres of urban parks per thousand residents, compared to 9.94 net acres in District 3 (Lauritzen) in the San Fernando Valley.
The disparities are even more dramatic if total acres of parks are included. There are 1.59 acres of total parks per thousand residents in District 1 (LaMotte), and 69.71 in District 6 (Korenstein) in the Valley.
District 1 is disproportionately populated by people of color and low income people, while Districts 3 and 6 are disproportionately white and wealthy.
These facts are illustrated in Chart 901C and Graph 901N.
Read more about the campaign by United Teachers of Los Angeles to help students move more, eat well, stay healthy, and do their best in school and in life. Watch the YouTube videos about the campaign.
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