How Overcrowded Classrooms Are Affecting Students And Teachers

 By Dennis Tang (Staff Writer)

In 2024-2025, George Washington High School faces overcrowded classrooms due to teacher shortages and decreased funding, impacting 2,073 students with larger classes and less support. SFUSD may face massive budget cuts.

SFUSD might face a budget cut in 2025-2026 to address its financial problems. This budget cut will make overcrowded classrooms even more crowded because we will be adding more students to already packed classrooms. This means that students will get even less attention from teachers, be even more stressed, and fall even further behind.

In Washington High School, there are 2,073 students and 112 teachers. The student-to-teacher ratio is about 18 but this is counting for co-teachers and supporting staff. Core subject classes tend to have more students and the ratio isn’t considering the uneven number of students in the classroom or different grade levels having larger classes with a shortage of teachers. This challenge is shown even more after switching to a 7-period day. This affects both teachers and students.

Another perspective is a teacher at Washington High School who pointed out, "When we shifted to a 7-period day, we needed to hire more teachers to have more sections that would alleviate the pressure on class size, but we didn’t.” An extra period was supposed to spread out all of the students to reduce packed classrooms but without hiring more teachers class sizes remained the same. 

Some students are struggling to get the individual help they need in overcrowded classrooms. A sophomore at Washington High School shared, “I sometimes need help with an assignment or have a question, but it can’t be answered because the teacher is so busy with all the other students.” This lack of support can lead to frustration, causing students to disengage and underperform academically. Additionally, a junior noted that larger class sizes lead to more distractions, making it harder for both students to focus and teachers to manage the classroom effectively.

SFUSD has experienced a decrease in enrollment by about 4,000 students since the 2012-2013 school year and if these trends continue then they will lose another 4,600 students by 2032. According to the SFUSD website, it says the funding is directly tied to student enrollment and they get a certain amount of money per student. Since enrollment is tied to funding, fewer students mean less money for the district to hire more teachers. According to the SFUSD website, “SFUSD must implement $113 million in reductions for 2025-26 to balance its budget.” If the budget cut happens then students will be placed in already crowded classrooms.

The parent from a junior in Washington High School shared “ Sometimes my kid tells me they aren’t getting enough help in the classroom which causes them to fall behind in classwork.” Without the support students need, they will start getting lower grades, experiencing frustration, and experiencing a lack of motivation. They also stated, “I know teacher shortages are one of many factors to the overcrowded classroom but if we can get more teachers then I feel students can be more successful.” However, if we hire more teachers then budgeting is now a problem to address overcrowding.

SFUSD is looking to balance the budget by cutting teachers and cutting projects but that may come at the cost of student support. SFUSD’s full budget update is in March and it may give a glimpse into the future of student support given their financial situation.