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Universal National Service May Be Key to High School Dropout Problem

Las Year's Dropouts to Cost Nation $320 Billion Over Their Lifetimes

May 9, 2009       1 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

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Right now there is really no incentive for young people to finish high school.
 

If every young person was faced with doing two years of national service or finishing 2 years of college before age 21, guess what would happen?

The high school dropout problem would vanish.

Not only that, we would have a vastly superior workforce and perhaps be more equipped to compete in the international arena.

Right now there is really no incentive for young people to finish high school, unless they are already motivated to go to college and hopefully get a good job.

Many aren't so motivated, for a variety of reasons. Some become discouraged by earlier lack of achievement, illness, constant moving from school to school, family problems, etc.

Many young people either drop out of high school or graduate relatively uneducated, unable to get a job or continue with higher education because they lack skills.

The fact the job market is shrinking adds to the despair young people face. Without much hope of any kind of decent job, they have little motivation to succeed academically.

Well-meaning educators have been desperately trying to find solutions but are finding the issue nearly insoluble. That is because it is systemic, not an internal problem but one of structure. Without a built-in incentive such as universal service nothing will change.

A local planning group has been meeting under auspices of the Bay-Arenac Intermediate School District but has yet to issue a report suggesting any possible solution. Local dropout statistics are uncertain and vary from district to district, but statewide about one in four students does not finish high school on time.

Schools and educators are blamed for dropout problems, but they are helpless given the overwhelming dysfunctional aspects of society.

Without an external incentive such as universal service, youngsters will gravitate to the path of least resistance -- dropping out and becoming a burden on their families and society.

A New York Times columnist wrote recently that high school graduation rates are universally seen as a barometer of success, or failure, in education. Parents, college admissions officers, even real estate agents rely on that particular statistic to tell them if a school is any good.

Bloomberg News reported that a good share of jobs disappearing now are gone forever. The news service also said Americans should be prepared to experience much higher levels of unemployment, perhaps permanently.

Edmund Phelps, Columbia University professor and winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, said the nation should prepare for a "markedly higher" natural rate of unemployment.

Graduation rates in are a measure of the larger community outside the school and whether its politicians, civic leaders, business executives and even police officers are all doing their jobs.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and state officials announced a yearlong, multi-agency initiative to boost the state's graduation rates. Called the New Jersey High School Graduation Campaign, it will be led not by the state's Department of Education but by the state attorney general's office, with funds from businesses like Verizon and Prudential.

The idea is to keep young people in school not just for their own good, but also as a pre-emptive strike against violence and gang activity. Governor Corzine said: "the aim is to ensure that kids are headed in the right direction and not falling into the trap of a life of crime. Staying in school is one of our best crime prevention tools, and it requires the collaborative efforts of all of us to make it happen."

New Jersey's campaign is part of a national effort to reduce dropout rates by America's Promise Alliance, a Washington-based child advocacy group founded by Colin L. Powell in 1997. Since April, the group has awarded grants of $25,000 to 14 states, including New Jersey and New York, to hold summits to develop community-wide plans for reducing dropout rates. The goal is to have summits in all 50 states by 2010.

Colleen Wilber, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said that dropouts are more than just a problem for schools, because those students are more likely to become a burden to society -- ending up in jail, on welfare rolls or without any health insurance. According to the group's research, dropouts from the class of 2007 will cost the nation more than $320 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetime.

"We think that solving the dropout crisis is going to take the entire community," she said. "Not only is it important to have the schools and the parents, but it's also critically important for the business community, the faith community and the nonprofit groups to be there."

William Firestone, an education professor at Rutgers University, said that community leaders could bring more financial resources to a school, run after-school programs that provide tutoring and develop skills, and promote stronger family ties. "There's a lot of evidence that family support is critical to success in schools," he said.

Irene Sterling, president of the Paterson Education Fund, an advocacy group for children in the Paterson schools, said the new campaign would send the message that dropouts are a shared problem. She said that poor urban districts like Paterson would particularly benefit from the community help because their schools have had to step in and provide social services for students when there is no one else.

"What the suburbs don't understand about their success is that it is the whole community that's making their school successful," she said. "They have a lot of involved parents, and they have parks and recreational programs. Urban students are dependent on their schools to deliver things that are delivered by others in the suburbs."

Eventually, however, the systemic problems of unemployment and the underlying weakness of the economy will affect all students and all school districts.

The implementation of universal service will address those structural problems and make us a stronger nation.###

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jchowell Says:       On May 11, 2009 at 08:15 PM
Everyone likes to feel competent at doing something.
National service of some type would help accomplish this for youngsters. Also, working with others as part of a team to accomplish a goal is a very important part of becoming a social, considerate human being. Some kids learn this in high school but those who drop-out are left in the lurch.
Agree? or Disagree?


Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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