AUSTIN — The Communities in Schools partnership between business leaders and the state helps prevent school dropouts more than any other program, but legislation to expand it is at the mercy of the state budget.

A bill co-authored by a dozen state senators will be left pending despite broad, bipartisan acclaim and a dropout problem that many experts consider to be of crisis proportions.

"I am 150 percent behind the program. I think it's outstanding work by a lot of people all over the state," Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, told bill supporter Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, on Tuesday. "It's the most successful program that we have seen to date."

But the bill can't advance "until after the budget passes," she explained, because it would cost the state an extra $14.3 million a year.

Last year's $20 million in state funds for the anti-dropout program swelled by another $30 million from businesses and private donors.

More than 2 million Texas schoolchildren are considered at risk of dropping out, Shapleigh said.

"To me, that is the major crisis in Texas," Shapleigh said. " ... The most important job of Texas government is to educate our children to compete for the jobs in the 21st century, and right now the dropout crisis is the major challenge facing us."

Strong showing

The Communities in Schools project is in Houston and 26 other communities.

In the Houston area last year, Communities in Schools reported a 99 percent stay-in-school rate; an 85 percent graduation rate among its senior participants and an 86 percent rate of improvement in academic behavior and attendance among its full-time caseload of 5,300 students.

The program operates at 104 campuses in the Houston, Alief, Aldine, Spring Branch and Fort Bend school districts.