Immigration flood and boomers fuel record enrollment

College and university enrollment will likely increase for years to come. According to new statistics, a record 49.6 million students filled U.S. schools in 2003, breaking a mark set by their baby-boomer parents and grandparents and giving educators a new generation of challenges.

The growth is largely due to all the children who were born in the late 1940s to early 1960s and have since become parents themselves, the Census Bureau said yesterday. Rising immigration played a part, too, in pushing enrollment past the 1970 record of 48.7 million. Immigration has helped fuel the national boom. Twenty-two percent of students had at least one foreign-born parent, including 91 percent of Asian children and 66 percent of Hispanic youngsters. For more information, see

The Washington Times at
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050602-123028-3127r.htm

The Seattle Times at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002296041&zsection_id=2002119998&slug=schools02&date=20050602