Politically, school overcrowding is a symptom of poor infrastructural planning. When deciding on infrastructure initiatives, politicians are expected to take into account growth and basic necessities such as available schools. City planning is crucial as prime real estate usually signifies close proximity to quality schools. A quality schools is one that the child is comfortable attending and has high achievement statistics. The facilities within the schools are often inadequate for heating, lighting, air conditioning and electricity when it was built for fewer students.
Overcrowding schools lead to overspending tax dollars. Unhappy constituents move to new counties and pay taxes in different districts, or they simply vote politicians out. A solution that is often used to combat overcrowding is bussing kids to different schools. Parents may have to pay more taxes to bus their kids to schools further away. Because immigrants comprise 19 percent of children in American schools, some constituents are arguing that their tax dollars are going to educate children of parents who are technically not citizens. The debate on the pros and cons of immigration is always a heated topic in politics.
Legally, overcrowding sets the school districts up for discrimination lawsuits. It is believed that the most overcrowded schools are those that are in neighborhoods where the predominant populations are non-white. The school districts can be accused of ignoring the needs of minority children, therefore discriminating where it puts the funding available to improve the schools in its districts. This can open the Department of Education and the local school district up to class action lawsuits.
In some states parents can be charged with neglect if their child hasn't attended school as the state requires. If the student is picked up by a truancy officer, the parent can be charged and face jail time. Therefore, the school district becomes responsible for making sure there are adequate facilities in schools to account for all the children in their district. Overcrowding strains the resources available at the school to ensure a child's security and welfare during school hours. School districts can be charged with fraud or inappropriate allocation of funds if parents and prosecutors believe that they aren't properly allocating tax dollars and holding up their end of the bargain.