The results of a survey of 55 Illinois school districts which had experienced declining enrollment and surplus school space are reported in this paper. All 55 districts had closed at least one school as a result of enrollment decline, resulting in a total of 89 school closures. The two most important criteria for selecting the schools to be closed…

In 1980, Midwestern State University (Texas), a typical college in several respects, held a series of panel discussions aimed at making students aware of the practicality and applicability of language study. Originally conceived as a "work fair" that would help recruit English majors, exigencies of a changing academic situation and the English…

Major objectives of this monograph are to explore the condition of American public education, offer an educational agenda for the 1980s, and suggest ways to restore public confidence in education. America's public education system is characterized as being currently stymied by the end of economic growth, unsure of what is expected of it, beset by…

Major findings and recommendations for postsecondary education in Indiana are presented. Topics discussed include enrollments, postsecondary participation rates, College Board admission test results, educational attainments of the Indiana adult population, characteristics and plans of Indiana high school seniors, characteristics and plans of…

The role of teacher educators is particularly significant for the welfare of a democratic society and for the education of its children and youth. Recently, however, the decline in enrollment in teacher education programs and in school-age children poses pervasive and serious problems, leading to the curtailment of programs and the retrenchment of…

As a response to the concerns associated with the allocation of state resources to institutions of higher education, several states have developed budget formulas to derive estimates of the institutional financial requirements. Formulas, however, were developed during a period of rapid growth, and might be unresponsive to institutional needs…

A long-range financial planning model was developed by the staff of the Minnesota Higher Education Coordinating Board to explore the issues and problems facing the financing of Minnesota postsecondary education. The model was designed to determine the extent to which alternative general financing policies and specific funding formulas affect…

The appropriation, payments, and amounts lapsed during fiscal year (FY) 1978 of state aid payments for the public community colleges in Illinois are outlined in tabular form. A total of $111,771,600 was appropriated from the State General Revenue Funds for the colleges in FY 1978. Of that amount, only $108,749,229.98 actually was paid out. The…

During 1976-77, 42% of U.S. schools operated with fewer than 600 pupils and 27% operated with fewer than 300 pupils; Iowa had 181 K-12 public school systems with fewer than 300 pupils in 1977-78. All of Iowa's smaller school systems were located in the more sparsely populated rural areas of the state, had higher than average per pupil assessed…

While the elite private colleges may survive the enrollment declines of the 1980's and 1990's, the less elite, so-called invisible private colleges may have more difficulty. Finance, enrollment, and competition are the three major elements seen to threaten these institutions' futures. They face an uncertain financial future since historically they…

During 1955 to 1964, nearly 42 million births occurred in the United States. This established a record unequaled to then and unlikely to soon be repeated. This bulletin explores the roots of the baby boom and its lasting impact on U.S. society; an impact accentuated by the unexpected interruption of a century-long fertility decline and the…

The first half of this paper reviews the school enrollment trend in the state of Wisconsin and discusses the implications of school closings. It offers planning suggestions to local districts in light of statewide declining enrollments. The second half of the paper--a review of recent literature related to "cutback management"--is…

A study of the history of public financing of elementary and secondary education in Ontario and the issues and choices presently facing the province's finance system suggest that proposals for radical change must be considered. Current pressures on the mixed provincial-local system of finance come from the slow rate of economic expansion generally…

A sample of 11 school boards in Ontario forms the data base for this study, which embraces several objectives: the identification and analysis of current policies, of strategies being employed or developed, of possible alternative policies and strategies, and of constraints faced by boards in coping with declining enrollment. The data reveal that…

Based on a sample of 12 representative school boards in Ontario, a normative method of analysis was utilized in addressing the major concerns of the study: the appropriate number of noncertified staff for a given school board, future demand for and supply of noncertified staff, and the resultant implications of such information. The study…