“U.S. Schools Face a Crisis as the Number of Children Drops,” reads a New York Times headline this morning.

Now I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. How soon will the public-school establishment begin telling us that since there aren’t as many students to teach, we’ll need to increase the school budgets?

The Times report already hints at some of the arguments we’re likely to hear. Consolidating school districts will require more administrative costs, more special programs to coax students into the system, more community-based (read: baby-sitting) functions for the schools.

What you will not hear— nor read in the Times article— is discussion of how the public schools might more effectively teach children how to read and write. If Ford Motor Company took the same approach to long-term planning, they’d still be selling Edsels.