Intolerable: Texas' high dropout rate will lower incomes while hobbling the state
January 31, 2007
UNLESS self-correcting, a social problem cannot be relieved unless it is acknowledged. Most Texans and all of their elected representatives should be aware of this state's horrendous dropout problem, but the Intercultural Development Research Research Center in San Antonio has provided a useful and timely reminder.
Written by Editorial Board, Houston Chronicle
UNLESS self-correcting, a social problem cannot be relieved unless it is acknowledged. Most Texans and all of their elected representatives should be aware of this state's horrendous dropout problem, but the Intercultural Development Research Research Center in San Antonio has provided a useful and timely reminder.
According to the center, each year high school graduation classes in Texas have 120,000 fewer students than started high school. The center's researchers estimate that 2.5 million children have dropped out during the past 20 years.
Estimates vary widely, but the consensus of those who have studied the problem is that between one-fourth and one-third of Texas students leave school before graduating. Texans must be grateful the rate is not higher.
In urban areas such as Houston, the dropout rate climbs to 50 percent. For black, Hispanic and low-income students of any race or ethnicity, according to Eileen Coppola, a researcher with Rice University's Center for Education, the rate climbs to 60 percent.
Unless more students finish high school and go on to higher education, the state income level will drop as the cost for public safety and social services increases. While leaders in Austin say they recognize the problem and its gravity, little is done to change the governmental and financial equation.
In recent years the Houston Independent School District has adopted an antidropout approach novel for its simplicity and directness. Educators and volunteers seek out students who don't show up in class and urge them to come back to school.
A spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White noted in an e-mail that White writes to all ninth-graders, urging them to pledge to stay in school. Expectation: graduation, a partnership between the mayor, HISD and other school districts, retrieved a reported 1,300 dropouts last year and returned them to school.
State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, is right to say that if Texans and their representatives tolerate a dropout rate of 30 percent to 40 percent year after year, spending a paltry $275 per student in dropout prevention and college readiness, low graduation rates will become the state's de facto public policy. The financial and social costs visited on Texas will be capable of inducing shock and awe.
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