Forty-nine million students ages 3 to 34 were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in 1999. Two-thirds of them had a baby boom parent. The impact has been significant in districts such as Long Beach Unified in California. But it also has prompted an unending search for new school sites and teachers. The district has constructed 10 new schools in the past decade, has plans for 13 more on the books, and hired 200 new and replacement teachers last year to cope with enrollment growth and the simultaneous aging of its cadre of classroom educators.
Potential teachers can now apply online for positions in Long Beach.
Nursery school enrollment of 5 million children in 1999 matched a record set in 1995 and reflected a steady increase in the enrollment rate since 1964, from 5 to 50 percent. Sixty-three percent of students from the class of 1999 were going on to college, and women accounted for 54 percent of all college students.