Shrinking Future Student Population Puts Colleges At Risk

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Up until a few years ago, colleges could expect classes of high school kids, each larger than the last, and be choosy about high test scores and parents who could pay…so begins an article in the The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Today there are fewer students; for every 100 eighteen-year-olds there are only 95 four-year-olds. There are fewer white and black children; in half the states more young children are Asian, and almost everywhere there are more Hispanics, young ones, particularly in the Southeast.

The number of children reaching college age will drop in the traditional population centers in the Northeast. What will the colleges do? Will they look at a workforce curriculum? Will they close? Merge?

Let's hope they don't follow the large public school systems that hid or ignored the problem and had to close schools precipitously. We know the problem. It will take action.