Reclaiming readily available government, commercial, and other facilities for school use can help solve many of the present and future school housing problems. (Author/MLF)

The use of many public school facilities now closed due to declining enrollment could generate substantial savings for new federal construction projects. Responses to a questionnaire sent to all 50 states by the General Accounting Office (GAO) show that there were 2,493 vacant schools in 19 of the 23 responding states at the beginning of the…

After a quarter of a century of rapid and sometimes spectacular growth, an increasing number of school systems are finding themselves faced with shrinking enrollments. The problems have changed from what to do about overcrowding, double sessions, and temporary facilities, to what to do about empty classrooms. The report examines this…

This publication attempts to simplify the complex issue of declining enrollment and surplus school space. Part 1 is devoted to a thorough discussion of enrollment decline. Text and tables are used to explain enrollment projections, large city public school enrollment decline, birthrates, population mobility, expenditures for education, and the…