Dropout rate must be addressed

Our young people dropping out of high school not only affect their future but the future of our nation.

There are six million students in America currently at risk of not completing high school. There are numerous studies, research papers and books about why our young people drop out of high school.

How often do we take the time to ask young people why they don't complete high school?

High school education is like one of the basics of life : food, clothing and shelter. A high school dropout on average earns $7,000 less a year than a high school graduate, $1,200 less than an individual with an associate degree and $12,000 less than a college graduate.

Many young people will give numerous reasons why they don't complete high school. We as a concerned nation must be advocates for those children who have no advocates at home.

The National Center for Education statistics reports that youth from families in the lowest 20 percent of income distribution levels were six times as likely to drop out as youth from families in the top 20 percent (Welfare Information Network. 2003).

The dropout crisis will only get better when we as a nation place it in the proper context and deal with it as an assault on the very fabric of our economic and social development. We must commit to seeing that each child reaches his or her highest academic potential. If not, we all suffer.

Chief among the causes for dropping out are a lack of parental support, a perception that teachers don't care, the lack of relevance in the curriculum, economic hardship, peer pressure, motivation and lack of meaningful engagement.

The national average spent on each student on education is about $8,000 a year while the average cost per prison inmate is more than $20,000.

The dropout problem has no quick solution, but it does have some basic remedies, which begin in the home. Parents should make education a top priority in the lives of their children. It must be assigned the status it deserves. What our children do in school will determine what they do for the rest of their lives. A 2005 report by Communities in Schools indicates that only 10 percent of Americans believe the dropout problem is a crisis.

BROOKS P. MOORE

Stonehenge Drive

Hanahan

Mr. Moore is interim principal at North Charleston High School.