How many public high school students in California are able to pass a standard fitness test?”
More than 6.2 million students attend a public school in California. California has 2 million more students than Texas, the next largest state. About half of the state’s students are enrolled in schools in four of its 58 counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and San Bernardino. In the 1980s and 1990s, California was also the nation’s fastest-growing state. However, the state’s school population began to decline in 2005–06. Almost 60% of all counties are facing declining enrollment, including almost all in the northernmost part of the state where the student population is sparse. Declining enrollments often create fiscal problems for districts because funding is based on student attendance regardless of the district’s ability to reduce expenses. For example, fixed expenses, such as facilities maintenance or utilities, do not necessarily go down just because there are fewer students in a school. California students come from diverse backgrounds Besides being the nation’s most populou