High School Dropouts: The Pain We All Share

When Laura grows up, she wants to be a Veterinarian. When William grows up, he would like to be a doctor. Susan wants to be a teacher. Antonio: a lawyer. Two of them will not make it past their sophomore year in high school, due to social pressure, under-funded schools, familial pressure/obligation or drugs. Those two who do not make it through high school have a significantly higher probability of ending up on welfare, having a part in gang activity, and becoming homeless. Everybody pays when a student drops out of high school, but it is not just money that is being sacrificed when it comes tothe care of former students who have decided to leave the system. Our entire economy suffers as a result of students dropping out. "It's expensive," states Valerie Bauman from the Associated Press State and Local Wire, "in terms of lost revenue to the state because it's a difference between a person having a job or being on some kind of assistance from the state.... Their parents and grandparents did not face the same job market. It's estimated that by the year 2010 only eight percent of the jobs in this country will be able to be handled by a high school dropout. Approximately thirty years ago 30 percent of jobs could have been handled by a high school dropout." And the people who suffer the most are the high school dropouts themselves. It has been said that "education is a key determinant of health. Without education, youth are at risk of entering a cycle of poverty, which includes unemployment, homelessness and poor health." (Grodzinski A9). Everybody suffers when a student decides to drop out of high school and students who make the decision to drop out are becoming more and more common. When more than "a million students are dropping out of high school every year," (Meadows A1) it is fair to say that it is a problem of epidemic proportions. The problem can definitely be slowed, however, and many communities are trying their hand at new fixes and new funding that may very well do the trick. With the right sort of people supporting the American education system, perhaps even one day the issue will no longer be an issue at all.

Why do so many students find that dropping out is a viable option? Robyn Meadows and Mitchell Landsberg (Authors for the Lancaster New Era and Los Angeles Times, respectively) talk candidly and concernedly about the choices these students make. Students who decide that becoming a high school dropout is more appealing than becoming a high school graduate have many reasons for doing so. A "survey of 470 dropouts reveals that nearly half say they quit because school is boring - two-thirds said school failed to challenge them and did not provide enough academic support. More than half quit with less than two years left to graduate. Many leave school to care for sick relatives or hold down jobs to support the family. Some get pregnant." (Meadows A1). Though I've no strict evidence on this, I'm almost sure that it can be said that these statistics do not represent all high school dropouts. There are other reasons that students feel that they can't finish high school. Some get involved in drugs. Some leave home before turning 18, forcing themselves to work a full time job to support themselves. Some students just hate school, and simply do not have the patience to wait through another four years of what I imagine they consider to be an academic hell. Most, if not all students eventually regret their decision. "High school dropouts lead much harder lives, earn far less money and demand vastly more public assistance than their peers who graduate." (Landsberg A1) Every student who has dropped out of high school has their reasons; none of those reasons ever seem to work out to be the prince charming that higher education virtually always proves to be.

This issue with students dropping out of high school has to begin somewhere. Most everybody related to this trend has had a hand in its going wrong. Not surprisingly, nearly everybody is willing to point the finger, as long as it isn't pointed at themselves. Even school administrators have a hard time admitting to the problem. Lilly Rockwell, in the Washington General News talks about the problem: "Executive Director of the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University Jay Smink said many teachers and administrators would have been less likely to say classes were boring, and more likely to blame students for not understanding the course work. 'I doubt if administrators would admit to school failure as accurately as the students portrayed it' Smink said" The students themselves are to blame as well, and their families don't help the situation. The blame should not exclusively ride on the parent's, students' and administrators' shoulders though. They are not the only ones who could be doing something differently to change the rate at which students drop out of high school. Local governments have left schools that were once "good enough" alone. The problem is that those schools are no longer good enough. "High schools have remained unchanged for decades... Our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world that is different than the one we knew as children. Because the digital age with its modern technology requires a different skill-set than the past, our students are lagging behind their peers from other nations in acquiring relevant, modern-day skills that are necessary to compete." (Harris A11)

The issue can be harrowing, but it is not without hope. There are things that we can do both as a community, and in local government to help solve the problem of students dropping out of high school. Across the Northern border in Canada, Ontario has adopted a new program to help high-risk students and students who have already dropped out get back into high school and get their diplomas. In a May 2006 article in The Toronto Star, author Louise Brown reports on the new program. She says that "Toronto teacher Laura Crane drives from school to school on a rescue mission for dropouts. The lifeline she brings to those who have quit - and those on the brink - is an unusual new co-op program that lets them earn a high school credit for doing a paying job; and they can start any time of year, without having to wait until next term. It's a way of hooking them back into education, while letting them keep a paycheck. And it comes with full-service support." (Brown A1) Canada is not the only country doing something about the drop out rate. The program sounds like an enviable one. In a few years, there will be enough evidence to see if it is truly successful in the long run. The United States has a few programs of its own, that it has also implemented with some success. One such program in Virginia has decided that upping the pressure on students to stay in school is the route that they think will work best. Matt Chittum with the Roanoke Times (Virginia) reports on the subject, stating "the administration has already dramatically increased the number of support team meetings for at-risk students. The meetings happen on campus and include the student, a parent or guardian, the principal, a school intervention specialist and sometimes someone from the community who knows the student, such as a pastor or a caseworker...something as simple as six absences in one class triggers a support team meeting." (Chittum A1) I'm not sure that I agree with this one. I feel that maybe school administrators in Virginia are becoming too detached from their students. If adults appeal only to other adults, the students will never be touched, and I believe whole-heartedly that grabbing the students' attention as well as their parents/guardians attention is going to be the most effective route in dealing with this issue. California, not surprisingly, has adopted a less aggressive approach. According to reporter Carmen Ramos-Chandler with The Ascribe Newswire Cal State Northridge has started "A center project called the Teacher-Tutor-Student Collaborative [which has driven] down Sylmar High School's dropout rate from a jaw-dropping 48 percent for the class of 2004 to 26 percent for the class of 2005. The project expects to see that rate dip to 14 percent for the 2006 crop of students." Their project consists of Cal State Northridge college students in a voluntary program that reaches out to high school students in a group study atmosphere. So far, according to the statistics, the program seems to be working dramatically. (Chandler, Ascribe Newswire) Now, here we go. While California tends to be a little too soft in most cases in my opinion, this program has my support. When college students reach out to younger students and show them that their status is attainable and not far off, it is my opinion that younger students will respond - and dramatically.

None of this is to say that those who drop out of high school are inherently bad people, or that they should be looked down upon and persecuted. Neither the main idea of this paper nor any of its sub-topics is claiming that high school dropouts are not capable of achieving higher education. They are, and when they realize it, they show up in community colleges across the nation. Whether it makes us feel good about our own accomplishments, or whether it makes us doubt the education system we now have, the facts remain: Everybody pays when a student decides to drop out of high school. They have a much higher chance of ending up on welfare, and they are significantly more likely to end up impoverished, and in poor health (Grodzinski A9) and they cost our states and consequently our nation billions of dollars in their lifetimes (Bauman). Students who drop out have their reasons, ranging from pregnancy and drugs to familial obligations and, of all things, boring classes (Meadows A1). The blame can be put on several sources, from the lack of school funding local governments provide, to lack of programs in high schools in which students get the help they need to succeed. Ultimately though, the choice resides with the students and their families. That does not leave the community out of the loop, however. There are things that we can do. There are programs that have been proven by several states in America and in Southern Canada, in their successes. Dropouts are a problem for all of us, whether we are high school dropouts ourselves or high school graduates; whether we are impoverished or multi-millionaires or somewhere in between the two. We are going to be stuck with the bill when those decisions to leave high school early are made. We have to stop high school students from even getting to the point where they believe that they might need to leave high school. Where parents refuse to step in, the community and the schools must. Even when it doesn't feel as though it ought to be our responsibility, we need to recognize it as such. I do not believe that the point is to take responsibility away from the parents. Rather, when parents fail to step up and pressure their children to stay in school, somebody must pick up the slack or else our economy, our healthcare systems and the chances for the high school drop out's children and consequently their children's children will be crushed. When little Laura, Susan, William and Antonio grow up, they will have to make that choice. Do they want to be contributing members of society or whether they would rather live on the outskirts of society, not able to contribute to society or really thrive? Helping them to become the veterinarians, teachers, doctors and lawyers that they aspire to be is the best thing we can do for our economy and for their chances at happiness. High School dropouts are everybody's problem. When they don't feel as though anybody around them cares whether they are in school or not, we need to stand up, as a nation and a community and tell them in double bold face, clear cut confidence that we want them to succeed.

Works Cited

Bauman, Valerie. "High School dropouts increase financial burden in Miss." The Associated Press State & Local Wire 3 Mar. 2006.

Brown, Louise. "'Dropout Doctors' Woo Back Forgotten Students.." The Toronto Star 13 May 2006: A1.

Chandler, Carmen Ramos. "Cal State Northridge Project Cuts Dropout Rate at Sylmar High School." Ascribe Newswire 18 Apr. 2006.

Chittum, Matt. "Dropout Culture." The Roanoake Times (Virginia) 11 June 2006: A1.

Grodzinski, Eden. "Community Solution to Addressing Dropout Rate.." Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada) 07 Jan. 2006: A9

Harris, Ginger. "New Strategies Needed to Keep Kids in School.." Corpus Christy Caller - Times (Texas) 19 May 2006: A11.

Landsberg, Mitchell. "The Vanishing Class." Los Angeles Times 29 Jan. 2006: A1.

Meadows, Robyn. "KIDS on the BRINK; Dropouts remain a national epidemic. But some local schools are finding success by giving students more choices in and out of the classroom.." Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania) 01 May 2006: A1.

Rockwell, Lilly. "Dropouts Reveal Reasons For Leaving School." Cox News Service - General Washington News 2 Mar. 2006.