Education
An Analysis of Education Resources in Los Angeles
Education is considered to be an essential service by many. Schools have become necessities around which communities are formed. The 611000 NAICS code encompasses a wide variety of educational services, from colleges to vocational training schools. This study examines the empirical data of educational services in the data set gathered by the Office of Finance on active businesses in Los Angeles and aims to reveal the impacts of historical events through observing trends in the data . An “active” business is defined as a registered business whose owner has not notified the Office of Finance of a cease of business operations.
- NAICS Code: 611000
- Total number of registered educational services: 5062
- Districts with most number of educational services: 4, 5, 11
- Districts with least number of educational services: 7, 9, 15
It is observed that districts 7, 9 and 15 have the least number of educational services while districts 4, 5, and 11 have the most. Districts 7, 9 and 15 are at the edges of Los Angeles county. District 7 occupies the northern area, including Mount Gleason and Pasadena. District 9 occupies the southeastern edge, including Compton and Willowbrook. District 15 occupies the southernmost area, including San Pedro and Wilmington. Districts 4, 5 and 11 span across most of north-western Los Angeles. Some notable neighborhoods include Burbank, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
When visualized over the past 30 years, education has seen a steady upward trend and peaked at 413 educational services started in 2014. The trend however, does not continue past 2014, dipping to 316 in 2019.
When compared to the median income levels by district, districts 4, 5 and 11 possess the highest level of income. It is also observed that districts with lower income levels than the citywide median generally have a lower number of educational services. This implies that access to educational resources are lacking in lower income districts. Although this is the case, there has been a surge in numbers of educational services in lower income districts in recent years.
There has been a surge in educational access in areas such as districts 8, 10 and 14 in the past 10 years but it is also important to recognize that areas such as districts 9, 1 and 13 have barely seen growth in the number of educational services. This can be attributed to events that pushed for increased access to education. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has been actively increasing access to education. One such initiative was the ‘We Build’ program organized in 2003 to create a pool of qualified workers to work on new school construction projects. In 20 years, 131 new campuses were built and 65 existing ones were expanded. This increase in access is particularly significant for residents in lower income neighborhoods. A study from the China Economic Review reveals that there is a correlation between education and income. Increase in access to education will contribute to reducing income inequality.
Using this map, each educational service can be found in their respective districts in Los Angeles. This map should act as a resource to help locate educational services for those who are unable to locate any near their residence. When visualized, the map shows the areas that are heavily populated with educational services, but most importantly draws attention to the areas without close proximity to such sources, such as districts 9 and 15.
It is important to recognize that there are imperfections in our data set that may manifest as biases and produce incomplete conclusions. Some of these include:
- Lack of specificity in types of educational services
- Does not reflect unregistered businesses
- Incomplete information from businesses collected