Outlook 2009
Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy (mkennedy@asumag.com)
What's ahead for education facilities and business in the new year and beyond.
Change is coming.
For schools and universities, that's a safe prediction every year, but it's even more likely in 2009. Economic uncertainty is raising anxieties, tax coffers are dwindling, and budgets are collapsing, but the educational needs of students are just as urgent as ever.
Most education administrators will find it difficult to maintain the status quo, let alone find the resources to pursue innovations or expansions that can improve learning for students. Instead, they will have to make painful decisions about which programs and projects to cut, which jobs to eliminate, which facilities to close and which construction and renovation plans to put on hold.
At the same time, a change is coming in the relationship that the federal government has with local school districts and higher-education institutions. A new presidential administration and a new education secretary will take the reins of power and chart a revised course for education reform.
That could result in modifications to the No Child Left Behind Act, President George W. Bush's program that aimed to improve the American education system. President Bush and his supporters say the legislation has helped improve education and has made schools more accountable for their performance. Critics of the law say it has been underfunded, its provisions place too much emphasis on testing, and its sanctions against struggling schools are too punitive.
President-elect Barack Obama's campaign platform called for greater funding of No Child Left Behind, less reliance on standardized testing, and an accountability system that focuses more on supporting schools and less on punishing them.
Of course, those campaign promises were crafted before the dire state of the nation's economy became clear in weeks before the 2008 election. Those involved in education were hopeful that school-related issues would claim a place of prominence in the dialogue between Senators Obama and John McCain, but the cratering financial markets, the teetering state of the automobile industry and the increasing numbers of unemployed — not to mention the continuing military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan — kept education reform on the periphery of the presidential campaign.
Those same economic emergencies are certain to take priority at the outset of the Obama administration, and the economic actions carried out in the coming months will help determine whether schools and universities will have the resources to provide facilities and programs that offer effective instruction to the nation's millions of students.
And while decisionmakers in Washington, D.C., and state capitals work to navigate their way through economic troubles, administrators at schools and universities in 2009 will be expected, as always, to tackle the array of issues that confront them day in and day out — making sure they have enough classrooms to accommodate all students; constructing and renovating facilities to provide effective learning environments; ensuring those environments are secure, healthful and well-maintained spaces; providing safe and efficient transportation; and a host of other situations that pop up every day throughout the school year:
Outlook 2009 analysis
- Enrollment
- Construction
- The economy
- Transportation
- Class size
- Energy
- New leadership
- Security
- Technology
- Sustainability
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