Demography, urban to rural migration, new educational technologies, and the human potential movement all impact on education. With the decline in number of school-aged children, schools can try to expand the number of students downward (early childhood education/day care), outward (special education, dropouts), or upward (adults), expand service through use of school facilities for social services, and/or rethink the role of schools. In urban to rural migration, the key distinction is whether migrants want to be in rural areas. Those who do not may try to "urbanize" the area, with detrimental affects on education through consolidation and inappropriate urban-oriented curriculums. Schools, already information poor and technologically backward, may be left behind as information providers as society faces revolutionary technological changes in communication through home computers, video-disc technology, laser-modulated fiber optics, and advanced satellites. The self-actualization movement in progress may influence schools to work toward a balanced development of the full range of human capabilities, addressing motivation to learn. Suggestions for economic policy dealing with each of the four areas are based on data presented. (RS)