Sentence Correction

Part of the proposed increase in state education spending is due to higher enrollment,since the number of students in public schools have grown steadily since the mid-1980's and, at nearly 47 million, are at a record high.

A. enrollment, since the number of students in public schools have grown steadily since the mid-1980's and, at nearly 47 million, are at.
B. enrollment, with a number of students in public schools growing steadily since the mid-1980's and, at nearly 47 million, reaching.
C. enrollment: since students in public schools have grown steadily in number since the mid-1980's and, at nearly 47 million, have reached.
D. enrollment: the number of students in public schools has grown steadily since the mid-1980's and, at nearly 47 million, has reached.
E. enrollment: students in public schools have grown steadily in number since the mid-1980's and , at nearly 47million, are at

The OA is D

my take

I always pick up and evaluate ACs with semicolon or colon, because if the rules of semicolon or colon are only with reference to the structure of the sentence after colon or semicolon

here the usage of " the number " is very imp... so D is the best option

Firstly, the use of "the number" is ALWAYS singular. Hence you need a singular verb

"the number of students have..." is incorrect

Hence A is wrong.

B is wrong because it says "with a number of students in public schools growing steadily...." where the use of "the number" would be correct.

I am assuming that the original question had semi-colons in options C, D, and E, instead of the colons that you've put in.

If that's the case, C is wrong as it uses a fragment (dependant clause) after the semi colon instead of an independent clause.

E is wrong because it says that "students.... are at a record high" whereas "the number of students is at a record high" would be correct.

Hence the ans should be D.

Thanks Winner's attitude & salman,
Can you please advise which one of below two is correct

students in public schools has grown steadily in number

or

the number of students in public schools has grown steadily

Correct: the number of students in public schools has grown steadily

the use of "students in public schools has grown steadily in number" is incorrect as it uses "has" when the subject is plural (students) and furthermore the meaning of the sentence is unclear. That is, we cant be sure what the sentence means when it says "students have grown". Have they grown in number or in size????

Salman Ghaffar wrote:Correct: the number of students in public schools has grown steadily

the use of "students in public schools has grown steadily in number" is incorrect as it uses "has" when the subject is plural (students) and furthermore the meaning of the sentence is unclear. That is, we cant be sure what the sentence means when it says "students have grown". Have they grown in number or in size????

what if the sentence is like this-- students in public schools have grown steadily in number

That is a better construction, grammatically correct

prachich1987 wrote:Thanks Winner's attitude & salman,
Can you please advise which one of below two is correct

students in public schools has grown steadily in number

or

the number of students in public schools has grown steadily

Now you can easily see that the first one has SV disagreement (Students has)
and the second one has SV agreement (The number of students has grown)

Thanks

prachich1987 wrote:

Salman Ghaffar wrote:Correct: the number of students in public schools has grown steadily

the use of "students in public schools has grown steadily in number" is incorrect as it uses "has" when the subject is plural (students) and furthermore the meaning of the sentence is unclear. That is, we cant be sure what the sentence means when it says "students have grown". Have they grown in number or in size????

what if the sentence is like this-- students in public schools have grown steadily in number

Students have grown -> perfect !