A survey by a national counselors’ organization has found that budget cuts are forcing freezes or cutbacks in most high schools’ counseling staffs.
The survey of 478 public and private high schools by the National Association for College Admission Counseling found that counseling-staff numbers for this academic year were frozen at more than 80 percent of secondary schools and cut back at 10 percent.
Public schools were nearly twice as likely as private schools to report increases in enrollment for this year; so far more of them reported increases in student/counselor ratios, according to the Arlington, Va.-based NACAC. Public schools reported an increase of 50 students per counselor, compared with private schools, which reported an increase of 16 students per counselor.
The survey also details the impact of economic cutbacks on aspects of the college-admissions process.
