The report was released by the Southern California Associationof Governments, a nonprofit group that includes a range of planningand other professionals from both the public and private sector.Commonly known as SCAG, the group tries to find regional solutionsto problems facing LA, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardinoand Imperial counties.

In the group's annual year-end "report card," SCAG says theregion has failed to make any significant progress over the pastthree years in several key areas—including transportation,education and construction of affordable housing.

The region's transportation system, which recently ranked lastin a study of 68 US metropolitan areas, was given a D on SCAG'sreport card. The public school system also rated a D, with thereport noting that only one of every three students that graduatefrom high school are prepared to enter either the California StateUniversity system or the University of California system.