Back to school

Hundreds of thousands of students are scheduled to stream back into Los Angeles Unified schools today for the start of the fall session as the district grapples with declining enrollment and the sixth year of a massive construction program. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

A projected 700,000 students will be enrolled in the LAUSD this year - official figures are expected in October - down from last year's 708,000, officials said Tuesday.

The slipping student figures come, however, as the district has built 67 new schools and still has 77 to go in its $19.2 billion construction program - the largest public-works program in the nation.