Teachers and administrators look to 2011 with understandable unease, believing their budgets will be lean, at best.

Many of them expect to be required do appreciably more with less, or as one teacher from Maryland told me at the annual Forum of the College Board in late October, the next budget cycle will be “a bear.”

She was especially troubled about protecting colleagues from the budgetary chopping block, describing her elementary school’s teaching numbers as inadequate when measured against the mounting number of students that must be schooled. Her theme was a reoccurring one.

The annual Forum in Washington, D.C., drew 2,200 educators from across the country, and most seemed interested in what others are doing to stretch diminished resources.

A high school principal from an impoverished state acknowledged there needed to be federal debt reduction and lower state and local taxes. The staggering debt can no longer be ignored, he lamented.

He furthered believed that education is one of the nation’s essentials for global competitiveness. “It would be naïve to think, however, that we will be spared eventual pain,” he said reluctantly.

His particular concern and that of many others was high teacher turnover and the slowing production of possible replacements in key disciplines like math and science. Too many of the most able are entering fields other than teacher education and it is a problem of massive proportions.

In a national survey of Hart Research Associates, commissioned by the College Board, the citizenry was alerted to the need for a modernized high school. Suggestions:

• learning independence, accountability, and personal responsibility;

• learning to be an active participant in one’s own education and personal development;

• learning how to solve problems and make good choices;

• having a chance to explore one’s capabilities, strengths, and interests;

• learning about the world beyond one’s own boundaries and borders, and the options that are available in the larger world; and

• learning good citizenship.

College readiness is about more than academics. Students, especially from low-income and disadvantaged surroundings, must be taught how to work through the college application process and obtain necessary financial aid.

Regardless of their aspirations, high school graduates are expected to be able to express themselves orally and in writing, to have mastered basic math and computer skills, and to have developed some cultural literacy through the basic study of history and current events. “Core content is a prerequisite to post-high school success,” Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, said.

Prepared high school graduates must to ready to move on to the community college or the four-year college and university. Thorough preparation in the high school classroom is critical for any aspiring student who understands opportunity comes with further study.

High schools, two-year colleges, and four-year universities must be well coordinated, so that their youngsters are encouraged, not discouraged, as they move forward to improve the likelihood of meaningful employment. More and more students are not so young, but driven and promising.

Cooperation between the community colleges and the traditional four-year colleges and universities has improved markedly in recent times, with political and academic leaders lecturing that the United States needs both types of institutions if the nation is to be a legitimate leader in the international race for competitiveness.

And technical education is central to both kinds of institutions.