As fewer students seek teaching degrees, universities close undergraduate programs

Education programs at colleges across the country are in trouble.

Oklahoma City University, a liberal arts college with more than 1,300 undergraduate students, has no early childhood and elementary teacher prep programs at the undergrad level. The university determined the programs to be no longer sustainable due to declining enrollment and suspended them for new students in 2020. By early 2022, only three students remained in the combined teaching programs.

News about OCU's decision to suspend these programs came alongside a slate of headlines about colleges suspending or canceling education...