A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

FOR RELEASE
August 21, 2000

Contact:
David Thomas
(202) 401-1579

RECORD SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS, AGAIN,
AS BABY BOOM ECHO EXTENDS INTO THE FUTURE

Release of
"Growing Pains: The Challenge of Overcrowded Schools Is Here to Stay"
A Back to School Special Report

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 21? According to projections by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, school enrollments will generally stay at record levels over the next 10 years and then begin to increase each year for the rest of the century.

This fall, a record 53 million students will enter the nation's public and private school classrooms, and full-time college enrollment will reach 15.1 million, also a record.

"We cannot continue to apply temporary solutions to permanent, ongoing challenges," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said. "The fact that many schools have been using portable classrooms for some years now makes clear that we are not prepared for the kinds of constant growth the future will bring."

Riley said the need for school construction is already critical in many communities. The administration supports legislation [H.R. 4094], introduced by Reps. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., that would authorize states to use $24.8 billion in new tax credit bonds to build and modernize schools.

Currently, the greatest increase in enrollments is at the high school level. Over the next decade the number of high school graduates will increase nationwide by about 10 percent. Six states ? Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and North Carolina ? will see the number of high school graduates jump by 20 percent or more. Full-time college enrollments are then expected to grow 19 percent by 2010; part-time enrollments will increase by 11 percent.

Riley said overcrowded high schools present a special challenge, as research indicates that teenagers do better, academically and socially, when they have less than 600 classmates. The administration is seeking a $120 million appropriation to help communities restructure high schools into smaller, more intimate places.

While national K-12 enrollments will remain relatively stable over the next 10 years, all Western states will have increases ? Alaska, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico can expect jumps in enrollment of more than 10 percent. After 2010 the number of school-age children nationally will begin to increase, rising some 6 percent by 2020.

"We need to figure out where we will put these children, and who will teach them," Riley said. "Many communities need to be building more schools now, to reduce overcrowding and to reduce class sizes. We also need to find ways to induce more people into teaching as a career."

The annual back-to-school report issued today projects that some 2.2 million teachers will be needed over the next decade just to meet enrollment expectations and to replace teachers leaving the profession through retirement or to pursue more lucrative opportunities. Riley has suggested that teachers be employed year-around, with a corresponding increase in salary. "Every child should have a fully qualified, well-trained teacher in the classroom,? Riley said, ?and that level of expertise must be fairly compensated."

The administration is requesting about $1 billion from Congress to help local communities recruit and better prepare new teachers, as well as update the skills of current teachers, and is asking for $150 million to prepare teachers to use technology effectively to improve teaching and learning.

Riley made his remarks in Nevada, a state with a projected 42 percent high school enrollment increase over the next decade ? the greatest increase in the nation. (For more details see www.ed.gov/pubs/bbecho00/)

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