Rick Karlin in the Albany Times Union reports New York schools open this week with enrollment numbers expected to be at an all-time low since the early 1970s. Last year there were 2.6 million students in the state's public schools. There were 3.5 million in the early '70s and 2.9 million for the 1999-2000 year. A fiscally conservative government watchdog group, the Empire Center, released a report Sept. 4 outlining the decline. The report notes that New York’s enrollment fell by ten percent while nationally pupil count has risen seven percent. Most of the student numbers drop has come in upstate schools, according to the report, which noted several elementary school closings recently in Columbia and Greene counties. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.