FINANCING EDUCATION IN A TIME OF DECLINING ENROLMENTS

Résumé

Analysing the problems threatening education systems in a time of sharply declining enrolments, Dean Atherton is concerned to propose ways and means both to main tain the system at a reduced level and also to cushion the financial shocks. For the first he examines various devices for retaining teachers in employment, rather than releasing them only to rehire later when elementary enrolment climbs again, in eight years' time. For the second he proposes a combination of some tinkering with present formulas, and a more fundamental change in the basis of financing, that would be grounded, not on enrolment figures, but on those programs that a system decides to be basic to its offerings.