From Mason City Globe-Gazette:
A record total of 106,597 full- and part-time students enrolled in community-college courses this school year, a 4.8 percent increase that marked the 14th consecutive yearly rise in the overall student population.
Tom Schenk Jr., educational program consultant with the state Department of Education, said this year’s jump followed a 14 percent increase last year that was the second-largest rise since the community college system was started in 1965…
Because community college enrollments tend to be cyclical with economic conditions, Schenk said projections call for the number of enrolled students to drop by as much as 9 percent in the next school year.”That’s our best guesstimate,” he said. “Community colleges have been cautious about this huge enrollment increase knowing that this is not something that necessarily is going to be sustainable.”
The projected enrollment for next year stood at 103,290, which would be a 9.3 percent drop from this year’s expected total but a 3.1 percent decline from the actual student count.
I want to clarify, I didn’t say “guesstimate”.
