Dropouts, Social Problems, and Investing in Ed...
"For the 2002-03 school year, the most recent year for which data are available, only 51.6 percent of black students, 47.4 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native students, and 55.6 percent of Hispanic students graduated from high school on time with a standard diploma, according to calculations for Diplomas Count by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center." [Education Week, June 22, 2006]
This is an emergency!! This is the equivalent of the global warming crisis except that it is the destruction and degradation of our generation and our future as a people that we are witnessing! What baffles me most about these statistics is that no one seems to recognize that just as this great divestment will lead to a national crisis in human capital and all kinds of social ills, an investment in public education would lead to a positive national impact beyond our dreams!
If we as a people and as a country decided to raise public education to the priority level of tax cuts or even flag burning (which both get hundreds of hours more debate time on the floor of Congress than education), we could dramatically improve our future for the better. All kinds of social problems linked to a lack of quality education would decline instantly including: the instance of crime, murder, drug dealing and addiction; the occurance of unwanted teenage pregnancies; and the money needed for welfare, food stamps, and subsidized housing. As the education level in the United States would rise, so would the entrepreneurship and creativity of our population, the development of jobs, and the quality of life for everyone.
How can we spread this message? How can we make this linkage between public education and a better quality of life for everyone?