Tuesday, September 25, 2007

School sprawl...


...one of the leading drivers of sprawl are laws that require large acreage for school sites. The good news is that, recently, efforts have begun to repeal those unsustainable laws.

However, simply repealing them are not enough. Instead, the law should mandate specific maximum acreages. And, these maximums should be as low as feasible in order to reduce the sprawling effects of large school campuses--often located on the suburban fringes where land is cheapest.

Case in point: this story where a school site of over 95 acres is being considered. As a colleague pointed out, the entire Magic Kingdom is approximately 100 acres large.

Do we really need theme park-sized school sites?

Not if we want to educate in a sustainable way.