John Monfredo: A Move To Counteract Worcester’s Dropout Epidemic
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Kids dropping out of school is a nationwide problem.
At the last Worcester School Committee meeting I had filed an agenda item to support Senate Bill (S.208), “An Act Relative to Dropout Prevention and Recovery.” This bill is sponsored by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Suffix County and co-sponsored by Senator Michael Moore, Representatives James O’Day and Mary Keefe from Worcester as well as a host of other legislators.
I had asked my colleagues to support this bill and send a letter to our State Legislatures with our stamp of approval. After a long debate on the merits of this bill it was supported by a five two vote with an option for local control. The main objection in the debate centered on was the concern that this bill could become an unfunded state mandate. In reading it over I saw no such thing happening for when a student drops out the school system loses over $10,000 per drop out. (The the school budget is predicated on enrollment figures.)
A Step in the Right Direction
Although this bill may have some flaws, it is a step in the right direction. A high school diploma is the minimum qualification for full participation in the nation’s economy. A worker without one can find it very difficult to find a job for many of the factory jobs of the past that once allowed workers to make a good income without a degree no longer exist and the educational requirements for jobs in general have increased.
Massachusetts has the best public schools in the nation, and yet our successes are not reaching all students. Each year we have about 8,000 Massachusetts high school students drop out of school with far reaching consequences for all of us.
High school dropouts are seriously at risk for the statistics tell the story. Are you aware that dropouts are more likely to depend on public assistance and they make up 70% of our jail and prison populations? (Thus, attention has centered on the School to Prison pipeline.) The average annual cost for a person incarcerated is about $46,000. In addition, unemployment for workers over age 19 is twice as high for dropouts than for graduates.
Senate Bill, 208 calls for the state to raise the mandatory school attendance age in phases from 16 to 18 but with close attention being given to those students at risk at an earlier age. I fully support this imitative for in recent years more and more states have been passing or introducing legislation to raise the compulsory school age. A number of states have recognized that the original laws were passed 100 years ago or more when we had a very different economy. However, we still require young people to remain in school only until they’re 16. That’s a system that made sense 100 years ago when there were no calculators let alone computers; when doctors had no x-rays let alone genetic tests; when there was no national phone system let alone an internet.
A Dropout Epidemic
Let’s be honest! In this nation there is a dropout epidemic! Almost one-third of all public high school students fail to graduate from high school with their class. Most students drop out within just a few years of finishing school and often enter a life of poverty, crime, prison, and broken homes. Society also suffers from the loss of productivity and the higher costs of increased incarceration, health care and social services.
Clearly times have changed, though state laws have not always kept up with them. It is common knowledge that the U.S. economy needs college graduates. At a time when two-thirds of high-growth, high-wage jobs requires a college degree and only one-third of Americans have college degrees, it makes little sense that state laws would continue to make it easy for students to avoid the prerequisite to college - high school diploma.
Other aspects of the bill create a graduation coach initiative thus matching students with caring adults whose job it is to help guide them through the school system. The graduation coaches and the schools will work with at risk students and their families in creating an individualized family engagement plan. This is similar to the Special Education IEP and its idea is to support, assist and develop practical strategies for strong family involvement in the student’s academic life and in the student’s school community.
The bill also calls for ways of enhancing and identifying students who may be at risk of dropping out by requiring schools to maintain an Early Warning Indicator Index for students in the kindergarten through grade 12 thus providing schools critical data to target appropriate and early resources to students in need. This concept is nothing new for at least 16 states now produces early-warning systems that flag students who are not on track to graduate from high school. There are four states that provide early warning feedback to educators on a weekly basis with a variety of indicators from attendance, behavior and course performance.
The solutions to this crisis must be addressed. Education is the single most important factor in the future prosperity of our state. Finding ways to solve this crisis can be done. Our state, as a leader in education reform, can bring about a revolution to education but we need action and not just talk. As we wait for state government to respond, we, as a community need to step up and do all that we can for the children of Worcester. This bill will be a start.
The motivation must start at the local level to improve accountability, raise expectations, and provide needed supports for students. Dropout prevention is needed now and will certainly go a long way toward addressing this civil rights issue of the 21st century. Not only do we need to keep at risk students in school but we also need to do more to help them succeed. This should be the goal of all school committee members across this nation. Let’s all work on making the dropout crisis a thing of the past.
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