US High Schools Have Shocking Drop-Out Rates

If the slogan is true, that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, then America’s high schools are doing terrible things 1.2 million times each year. America’s Promise Alliance has just issued a report showing that only 70% of America’s high school students graduate on time with a regular diploma and that 1.2 million quit school each year. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who founded the APA, said, “When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe.” He’s underestimating the problem.

A high school diploma basically certifies that the kid has the ability to function in the adult world – able to fill in a job application, pay bills, and know a little bit about the society into which he or she is entering. It isn’t the key to a golden future, merely a starting point for such. College or training in a decent trade are much more important, but without the high school diploma, those aren’t really options.

What was most troubling about the report was the horrendous gap between suburban graduation rates and those of the inner city. CNN reported, “Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools.” The relatively stable homes and families in suburbia obviously have a great deal to do with the difference, but at the same time, it’s the kids in the inner city who need the education the most. If one is going to pull one’s self up by the bootstraps, one needs bootstraps in the first place.

“In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District,” CNN said. What chance do these kids have in a global labor marketplace? The jobs in Detroit at Ford and GM that didn’t require a diploma aren’t there anymore. And what value will they place on education when it is time for them to raise their own kids?

Now, the fact that the APA used on-time graduation as its standard does make things overly gloomy. Graduate Equivalency Diplomas [GED] offer a second shot for a lot of young men and women, and often when a person has matured a bit, going back to school can be more effective because the desire, the need to learn is there where it may not have been before. All the same, this is a calamity because these people are being tossed aside before they’re old enough to vote and left to sink or swim on their own.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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