Schools Tragedy of the Commons

Grant School in Los Altos once had over 800 students. It has since been closed. Many of the students go to West Valley or Montclaire schools.
West Valley also has students from the former San Antonio school and Serra school.
Serra school is still owned by the school district. West Valley is overcrowded and filled with portable classrooms.

The school district had built neighborhood schools when there were young children. When they grew up, the schools were shut down. Now that the next generation is coming, rather than opening schools, the district is packing more people in to each school.
Parents are complacent.  At first kids would walk to school. Then a few parents drove their kids. This was easier for them to do on their way to work. Then more parents started driving. Since parents were driving, it didn't matter where the schools were located. So the old schools shut down, and parents simply drove to a different location. Now it was too far for many kids to walk. Parents had to drive.

Lovely.  just lovely.

Today, schools want kids to get more exercise. They want less traffic at the schools. Yet they have created an environment that fights against both of these.

An unfortunate tragedy of the commons.