Colleges see dwindling ranks of high school graduates - Mary Rose Williams, Bellingham Herald

In eight years, if a recent national report is correct, the number of high school graduates in Missouri will fall by 5 percent. An aging population, coupled with a decline in high school graduates entering college and the workforce, is a matter for national concern, experts say. Seeing the writing on the marker board, some area educators are looking past the freshman glut and trying to entice other sources of college fodder, including former dropouts. Overall, fairly flat national high school graduation rates until 2020 are predicted by the Center for Law and Social Policy and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.