Enrollment In U.S. Schools To Soar To 52.2 Million Rise Forecast To Continue To 2007; Districts Experiencing Space Crunch

The number of children attending America’s schools will reach a record 52.2 million this year, and the largest increase is among teenagers, federal officials said Thursday.

The trend is expected to continue through 2007 when enrollment in public and private schools is expected to peak at 54.3 million - with states like California, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina seeing the biggest growth.

School districts “need to be thinking long-term and building schools,” warned Education Secretary Richard Riley. “These young people will build and lead this country in the next millennium and we owe it to ourselves and our country to help them get ready.”

Some students already are feeling the pinch.

Ray Henderson, principal of Miramar High School in Broward County, Fl., said morale among students is declining as bathroom lines get longer, parking spaces become scarce and students arrive to class late because of crowding in hallways.

“Students are relegated to becoming crowds as opposed to individuals,” said Henderson. According to an Education Department report released Thursday, the 52.2 million children attending school this fall will be an increase of 1.2 million over last year.

The largest share of the growth is coming among teenagers, officials said, because enrollment among elementary students increased from fall 1985 to fall 1997.

The report said that from this fall until 2007, the nation’s schools can expect a 13 percent increase in grades 9-12, a 5 percent increase in grades 6-8 and a 1 percent decrease in grades 1-5.

California has the largest projected increase for the next decade at 35 percent. North Carolina follows at 27 percent, Arizona at 25 percent, Nevada at 24 percent, Massachusetts at 23 percent and Rhode Island at 21 percent, according to the report.

To cope with the influx, Riley said that in the next decade about 6,000 additional schools need to be built and about 2 million more teachers need to be hired - 260,000 to 300,000 in California alone.

He said that while there is no shortage of teachers in the country, there is a shortage of well-trained faculty who are teaching in their chosen fields, and many schools may need more teachers in specific subjects such as math and science.