Drop-Outs -- A Need For Reform, Yes, But . . .

From Ash:

Here's my real problem with the coverage of drop-out rates. It's not really a debate over how many they are. Because there are innumerable difficulties in figuring that out --- from what is considered a drop-out to the trustworthiness of the survey. And even if the number changes, the answer is really still the same: there are too many.

My real concern is that we might take panicked actions based on the publicity over the number of drop-outs (even if we all agree on their accuracy). But frantically addressing one particular crisis in education -- even when it's a legitimate crisis -- is not the answer to saving our kids.

For example, the Time/Oprah Survey found that 61% of those surveyed thought outlawing dropping out of school would be an effective solution to the drop-out problem.

Indeed, there are already states taking steps in that direction -- stripping drop-outs of their drivers' licenses, their work permits, etc.

Laws like that are exactly the sort of hysterical, knee-jerk responses that make me so concerned. That's the kind of thing that happens when a legislator reads a single headline, and says, "We have to do something!" Then there's a press conference and, it seems like a no-brainer -- no one will dare challenge. After all, who is going to be the one who votes against keeping our kids in school? Suddenly a bill's passed before anyone's even bothered to read it, let alone consider its consequences.

But there are consequences. And the consequences are not simply that those kids who would have dropped out will now get an education.

You want to know what it's like to prevent a segment of the population from having drivers' licenses? Come to California -- where millions of undocumented immigrants cannot have licenses. They still drive. They just do it without licenses, without taking "Driver's Ed" and having proved they know the rules of the road. They drive without insurance. Taking away drivers' licenses won't stop these kids from driving. It'll just be a new reason to punish them when they get caught for breaking another moving violation, and, in the meantime, your insurance will go up because of all the accidents caused by the now-uninsured young drivers.

Unintended consequences. But that's just the beginning.

Consider, for a moment, another popular idea now making its way into law: since many drop-outs quit to get jobs, we should strip them of the ability to legally work.

I'm sorry -- but, once again, that's just another answer that's good for a legislator's list of "accomplishments" but it won't solve anything. And I don't want you to fall for that flawed logic for a minute.

According to the Gates Foundation's recent survey, a third of the kids said they'd left school because they had to get a job. Not "they wanted" -- "they had" to get a job. It isn't their choice: it's their reality.

The fact is that children are the poorest of any demographic in the U.S. With the rate of child poverty in this country as tragically high as it is, criminalization of dropping out is just cruel. If you want to know what will happen to these kids when it's illegal for them to work, look at underage runaways. They can't legally work -- so they work illegally. That's why they end up in prostitution and drugs, because they can't legally get a job. So the likelihood isn't that these poor kids are going to stay in school because a law demands it. Instead, they'll just join the labor force of those paid under the table -- they'll end up in jobs working for people who don't care about such things as fair wages and child labor laws.

A kid I know hasn't dropped out yet -- but he's got most of the "risk factors." He's poor, a child of a single parent, lives in a gang-infested area (his relatives are in gangs), he's a Hispanic speaking English as a Second Language.

He can't come to a free tutoring program because his father insists he works as a gardener on the weekends. I know his education is suffering from decisions like that -- but I also know that his gardening may be the only thing that's keeping a roof over his head.

I know a girl who dropped out at 15 to take care of her mother and her younger brother. Her father's dead. Her mother is blind, deaf, and mute.

According to the Gates Foundation, over a fourth of the drop-outs (26%) said they'd left school because they'd become parents themselves.

Just punishing these kids is not the answer. Neither is scolding them.

And, unfortunately, even the best teacher in the world in the best school in the world wouldn't change anything for these children either.

If you want to address the problem of drop-outs, you can't do it without first acknowledging the reality of these kids' lives outside the classroom. as well as on campus, and figuring out how to help there, too.