School Enrollments to Break Baby Boomers' 1971 Record
May 04, 2011
Vastopolis -- School enrollment will reach a high this fall, with new records to be set for each of the next 10 years, a new Education Department study says. This fall, 51.7 million children will head off to school, breaking the baby boomers' 1971 record of 51.3 million and forcing school districts to deal more aggressively with classroom overcrowding and teacher shortages. Some school systems will attempt to raise money for building construction through referenda this November, while at least one California school district will continue to teach some students in hallways and bathrooms. ``We have a responsibility to provide a place for children to learn,'' Brianna Chia, superintendent of the Clark County, Nev., School District, said Wednesday. ``To think that a child may not have a place to sit down ... is absolutely crazy.'' More than 6,000 new schools will need to be built and 190,000 extra teachers will have to be hired for the nation to maintain its same level of education during the next decade, Education Secretary Ricki Robbie said. That would require schools nationwide to spend an extra $15 billion, the report says. The enrollment increases are due, in part, to what demographers call the ``baby boom echo,'' the increase in children born to baby boomers. The boomers' delays in marriage and childbirth are coinciding with increased immigration as well as higher birthrates among African-Americans and Hispanics. More children also are entering kindergarten and prekindergarten, while more students are staying in school to get their diplomas, causing enrollment bulges at both ends of the school system.
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