Texas High School Drop-out Rate a 'Crisis'

by: Sam Jones

Mon Jan 29, 2007 at 08:54:32 AM CST

Researchers generally agree that Texas' statewide dropout rate hovers around 33 percent, which is about 20 points higher than official statistics compiled by the Texas Education Agency.

The dropout rate is highest for blacks, Hispanics and low-income students - currently about 60 percent, said Eileen Coppola, a researcher at Rice University's Center for Education. "In our major urban districts, we can safely say that it's 50 percent."

"If you live in a city like Dallas or Houston, and half of your kids are not finishing high school, it's a social crisis, because we know that those kids will likely live in poverty, be much more likely to go to jail, and they will have more health problems," Coppola said.

The immediate stakes are clear;  Each year, 120,000 young Texans are missing out on any opportunities and societal conditioning that our public school system is capable of providing.  In turn, these teens enter the workforce without proper educational preparation, often sticking them with low wages and leaving us with sub-par employee performance.

But what about in the long-run?  The Chron reports:

Frances Deviney, director for Texas Kids Count - an effort to track the status of children - ticked off myriad ways people with high school diplomas fare better in life than those without.

While it would cost at least $1.7 billion to keep those dropouts in four years of school, she said, the long-term costs for society are much more staggering.  "The 2.5 million students, twice the population of San Antonio, who have dropped out of school in the past 20 years represent $730 billion in lost revenue and costs for the state of Texas," she said, citing an Intercultural Development Research Association report.

Some analysts say the alarming dropout rate can be attributed to a poor allocation of state education funds, or a lack of genuine concern among our leaders.  Others would claim an over-reliance on standardized testing has bored our students to truancy.  One could also attribute these statistics to an overriding State failure to improve low-income or high-risk schools. Still others blame bad parenting, pointing to many instance of indifference or even abuse.  Regardless of your reasoning, however, the state educational system is in a major crisis, failing tens of thousands of our bright, young minds each year.  And until we begin working on a serious plan to improve the situation, we have all failed.