European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Photo by Jecki Cooper com to a Tow Mumm my my my putting the heat on schools by Patricia United press he eyes of taxpayers and parents Are hard upon the nation s schools and colleges As the 1978 academic year gets under Way. Consumers paying the $155-billion school Bill for 55. 8 million students hitting the books from kindergarten to University want to know How their Money is being spent and what they Are getting for each Dollar. The Bill is up $11 billion from last year boosted by inflation. Soaring fuel costs raises for 3.3 million teachers and 300.000 superintendents supervisors principals and other  Bill is the largest in history although the student body is Down 2.5 percent from the record 61.3 million in u 7fi.critics charge those students Aren t getting the Educa Tion they Are paying for and those critics Point out that College Entrance test scores continue their Long slide. Showing math and verbal skills Aren t up to those of yesteryear s High school graduates. As for students who Don t go on to College critics say their education should go Back to basics teaching that leads to Mastery of Reading writing arithmetic. Fifteen percent of youths coining out of school can t Road or write simple sentences in Urban areas i percent of Black 17-year-Olds suffer that Handicap. Taxpayers in Many places Aren t Happy about paying the school Bill. In California they voted in proposition 13, putting a ceiling on properly taxes not a direct vote on school cuts but a move that will Cut deeply funds for that state s schools beginning in january. The proposition 13 mood Lias spread to other states. Forcing a Cut in taxes and thus forcing schools to make do with less. Avady it has Boen Felt in some of the nation s 16.000 school districts. In Toledo. Clevland. And Dayton. Ohio. School officials say will have close schools possibly by ivc Ember the schools also Are hit by problems which Are More faults of society at Large than of the schools themselves. These include teen age we Val disease described by the i s Center for disease control As pandemic some one million tee Vage pregnancies teen age drinking Aix drug abuse both linked to property damage and Vio Lence. Including to. 000 assaults on teachers Arr More than six million in wrecked equipment last year exx ugh Money to pay so. 000 teachers for a War Many of these problems add up to another absenteeism some Urban schools say 30 percent absent in a Day is no unusual. Some new problems 0a new Federal Law which took effect sept 1 says the schools must provide room and teaching for All the handicapped Blind deaf mentally retarded de presse4, hyperactive crippled children in wheel chairs Mccormack International figures from the National Center for education Statis tics enrolment 59.1 million Down 1 per cent from last year. Elementary schools 32.6 million Down 2 percent from last year s 33.2 million grades 9-12, Down to 15.6 million from 15.8 million. College enrolment however expected All time High of 11.6 million up 3 percent. School Bill breakdown elementary secondary $100 billion colleges $55 billion. Or. Mary Berry assistant . Secretary for Educa Tion admitted concern about Basic skills teaching but is hopeful the Bottom Point in test scores has been reached. I think there will be an improvement in student achievement Levels Over the next few years she said. This will happen because there is an heightened aware a the Bill for . Schools is up $11 Blois year and taxpayers in Many places Aren t Happy about paying the Tab. Ness of the declines and a Crescendo of concern in k promotion of students just because they attended communities. Class a practice critics say producing graduates with competency based education and other me who cannot function at a survival literacy level in. I think we will see a concerted attack on the problem today s society. F cities there is a great Deal proposed is setting up various Gates during the Edu nation process failure to pass would mean remedial the competency movement is aimed at ending Vork and being held Back. Another important question says Berry is what do you do when you graduate from College Berry former Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder says universities must face up to the problem that holders of Bachelor degrees especially in the humanities increasingly can t turn those degrees into jobs. Another is that colleges must learn to accept and critics charge students Aren t getting the education they Are paying for. Adjust to new non traditional students the adults who come Back to College nights weekends part time. They Are the reason College enrolment is up while the others Are Down. Some institutions Haven t made that adjustment yet Berry said and one of the problems blocking change is resistance by faculty. Many College teachers resist the idea of teaching focused on the evening weekend and part time older  but Berry pointing out that record numbers of High school graduates go to College insists the entire educational system has not failed. For a system that tries to Educa Atte so Many people Overall we be done pretty Well. And that s one reason we re frustrated and challenged by our  enrolments and teacher firings because of a falling Hurth rate in some areas but not in  states such As Texas and Arison with growing popu Unous of transferred White Collar workers and their families. . Hunting for students Money by Terry Kirkpatrick associated press Olleges in America Are entering a time of retrenchment and fierce Competition. The Long Range problem is the declining birth rate of the 1960s. The current trouble is Money. Nowhere is the apprehension greater than among the 1.500 private colleges whose administrators fear they Lack the political clout and the support of the state treasuries which May determine which schools sur Vive. The annual Supply of potential freshmen won t drop in absolute numbers until 1983. But Many private colleges mainly because of inflation Are already showing symptoms of the new Era of no growth steady  educators Call it. A decade ago a student entering College might have sent out several do in applications. Today he May receive that Many promotion brochures from admissions offices. A decade ago schools were ambitiously building dormitories and classrooms. Today they Are scraping for paint and plaster and other maintenance Money. A decade ago esoteric and off beat courses prolife rated. Today some traditional offerings have become Lux uries. The most critical problem is  says or. George Rainsford. President of Kalamazoo College in Michigan and president of the National association of private colleges and universities. We Caa t pass higher costs Qto the legislature As Public schools can. And if a increase tuition to cover costs we Price ourselves Oiel the  the association recently released a Survey Pri vate colleges chosen As representative of the sector. Co author John Minter says the an Revey was started four years ago because eve As saying the private sector was going Down the but nobody could cite any  while the new evidence does t support Truthe tube cassandras it s not especially Rosy Eit Lithe latest Survey 34 percent of the institutions wed to be losing ground in 1976-77 compared with Jent the previous year although none in the Sun Light closing was imminent. We Don t think the change was sufficient i All alarms but the Ratchet was tightened a not top the study s authors said. J several years ago private colleges were a Nike ducks in a shooting gallery. Between 1970 and 8 in dependent colleges professional schools and vies closed while 46 opened. Closings each year Dofter the worst of the 1974 recession but the finance tation of Many private colleges continued to Worsen. Money that should go to investments is of tufted to current expenses programs at some sch cur tailed or scrapped. Enrolments in private colleges have Rise ally Over the past several years although much As most schools wanted. The number Fate professional and part Lime adult stung risen recruiting offices Nave been Beer More student Grant Money has been made available primarily by the Federal government. Elmhurst College in Illinois for example has attracted 280 Spanish speaking adults to recently inaugurated courses taught off Campus in Chicago. Extension courses like this Are popping up at Many colleges. A and Elmhurst also has stepped up recruiting. We Haven to gone to advertising president Ivan Frick says but some schools have done that on billboards by air ports and that kind of  indicative of the recruiting emphasis everywhere the Survey shows that in 1974-75 there was one admissions staff employee for every 97 new students. Today there is one for every 77. Like other colleges Elmhurst has benefited from new Federal Aid for students particularly a program launched in 1973 called Basic economic Opportunity Grants. Elmhurst students received a total of $5,000 from this program in 1973-74. Last year that was up to $244,000. This and other Grant programs helped Elmhurst compete for students with Public colleges in the Chicago area whose tuition is roughly a third of Elmhurst s. Without the growing Federal student Aid programs the number of students in College would undoubtedly be smaller the Survey said. The effects of inflation Are not always apparent hoping the old dormitory plumbing will hold out another year paying Bills with gifts that once might have gone to endowment investments. Stephens College in Columbia mo., once was Able to set aside an enviable $600,000 a year for a Reserve build ing maintenance fund. That became impossible in 1973. The next year the trustees decided to put aside $150,000 a year. That too became impossible. We re now living pretty much on the former health of our physical Plant president Arland Christ Janer says. We can t much  eighty nine percent of the Stephens budget comes from tuition and the number of students has dropped from 2,000 five years ago to 1,500. Christ Janer thinks it is because of students choosing lower priced Junior col Leges. The widening Gap Between Public and private tuition has been blamed for the rash of private College closings in recent years. Competition will be very fierce in the future he says. But if there s no glut of students there s a glut of professors even though the Survey found that faculty salary increases Haven t quite kept up with inflation. Salaries Rose an average 6.4 percent a fraction less than the consumer Price Index and below the 7.2 percent Rise in average weekly earnings in non agricultural jobs. Still professorial Job seekers have made it easy for the colleges to fill most positions. Pay Scales at Unity col lege in Maine for instance Are near the Bottom of the Range but it has 10 to 60 applicants for each opening. 14 the stars and Stripe s wednesday Ember 13, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 15