Schools are a vital part of every community. The impact of the 710 Freeway extension on five separate school districts will vary, based upon the unique composition of the district, the proximity of the schools to the freeway, the number of homes and students to be removed, and the growth potential in each area. Each district must clearly understand the impacts of the freeway and evaluate its needs from both a community as well as an educational perspective.

Freeway advocates speak positively about the work of the Route 710 Mitigation Advisory Committee. But they do not speak of how the school districts were refused committee membership. However, the impacts of the freeway on our local schools is undeniable: based on the Mitigation Committee's recommended "reduced freeway footprint", the five impacted districts will lose $1.6 million annually in revenues.

School districts derive their funding from the State of California, based on a formula involving the number of students attending the district. Hardest hit will be the South Pasadena Unified School District, where funding from the state will drop $540,000. Next in line is the Los Angeles Unified School District, which will lose $320,000. Altogether, over 460 students will be lost, with 285 from El Sereno, 159 from South Pasadena, 4 from Alhambra and 13 from the Pasadena Unified School District. Due to these concerns, both districts have expressed their opposition to the freeway project. Even Alhambra Unified has expressed its concern over increased street traffic adjacent to schools caused by the freeway.

For South Pasadena, the loss of income means that, due to the small size of the District and its limited enrollment growth opportunities, it will not be possible to reduce expenditures without significantly reducing programs offered in math, language, and the arts. Extra curricular activities, like band and sports, which are vital to keeping students involved and off the streets, would also be reduced.

The South Pasadena Unified School District is very concerned, too, about the safety of the students as they go to and from school -- both during construction as well as after construction -- the possibility of increased gang activity and drug trafficking in demolished neighborhoods, and the impact of the freeway itself on the local educational environment.

The proposed freeway extension, for example, will be adjacent to the South Pasadena High School and its athletic fields. How will the pollutants from the freeway affect the athletes who train in the pool and on the football field and track? What will be the detrimental effects of the traffic noise on students in the adjoining classrooms?