Even though school overcrowding is a "major problem" in Issaquah School District, which includes the cities of Bellevue and New Castle, voters have turned down two bond issues totaling $84.5 million in a tax protest and demanded that new development pay a greater share of its own way. Current enrollment is 12,615, with enrollment growing annually from 400 to 600 new students due to development. Since 1990, the district has built five new schools and expects to build three more by 2001. Bethel School District has lost six bond issues since 1990 and, as a result, currently uses 94 portable classrooms. The school district has immediate need to build four new schools.

Vancouver School District, located just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, has experienced a 33 percent growth in total K-12 enrollment, from 14,000 students in 1987 to 21,000 in 1998. Thanks to strong local support, the district has built eight new schools and renovated a dozen more over the last eight years. The adjacent Evergreen School District, with 20,588 students, has experienced growth similar to that of Vancouver as a result of an influx of many new students from Oregon and California. Enrollment growth has increased an average of 900 students in the last three years. The district currently uses 270 portable classrooms, with one new high school under construction and five new schools scheduled to be built in the next six years.

In Puyallup School District, enrollment has jumped from approximately 16,757 students in 1996 to a projected 17,528 in 1998. While plans have been laid for the construction and modernization of four schools, the district does not foresee replacing the 156 portable classrooms already in use and in fact intends to purchase more in the future. Gary W. Floyd, assistant superintendent of Puyallup School District, estimates a cost figure of $18 million in unmet construction needs and expects shortfalls. Kent School District attributes its increase of 1,300 students in the last two years to "significant increases in births in King County through the 1980s and increased net immigration." Strong support for public schools has led voters in the district to approve 100 percent of bond issues proposed since 1986, totaling $280,450,000.

Federal Way School District is depending on the use of 65 portable classrooms to meet the demands of its growing student population of 22,000 students. Mukilteo School District, which has seen its enrollment double in the last ten years to 14,456 in 1998, currently uses 92 modular classrooms, despite having built six new schools and made additions to five others.

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[ Suburban Growth in Maryland ] [ Figure 1. -- Annual number of births, with projections: 1948 to 2018 ]