Dropping out

You've always got to be careful when you get news releases from a group promoting a cause, but one came in the e-mail a little while ago that interested me.

First, let's quote from the bottom:

More than 1 million American high school students drop out every year. That’s about one every 29 seconds or 6,000 who drop out every school day. Dropouts are more likely than high school graduates to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, in prison, on public assistance, and single parents with children who also drop out of high school.

Now, from a little higher up:

As the 2007 graduation season gets underway in America, leaders of the May 9th “National Summit on America’s Silent Epidemic” will call for an end to the nation’s high school dropout crisis. Invited Summit speakers include, Mrs. Laura Bush, as well as Governors, Congressional leaders, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer, MTV President Christina Norman and those at the vanguard of education research – each referencing their hometown’s true, on-time graduation rates.

For the first time, the nation will have access to an online resource to be released at the Summit that reports the on-time graduation rate for every school district in the nation. The data will also show where (what grade level) each district is losing students, so communities can more effectively target solutions that reduce dropouts. Because inaccurate graduation rates have historically masked the magnitude of the problem, the new knowledge is expected to be a wake-up call for many communities.

The summit is being co-hosted by the National Governors Association, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, MTV, TIME Magazine, and Civic Enterprises, LLC.

Going to the summit might be interesting, but I want access to that database. I don't want something with a lot of pull-down menus. I want the files themselves so people like me can delve into the true numbers of high school attendance.

Take Cabell County, for example. You can figure that one-fourth of the freshman class at Huntington High or Cabell Midland High won't be around to graduate 12th grade. Some may move away, go back to private school or whatever, but a good number drops out.

And you know what? I'm glad some of them drop out. Some kids don't need to be in school. They don't want to be there. They contribute nothing. They refuse to accept the fact they need schooling.

Or a public school environment could be all wrong for them. Night classes for a GED might be better.

There could be some good reasons for dropping out. A lot of bad reasons, but some good reasons, too. For the kids' sake and the sake of the other kids who want to learn.

I want to hear what the summit has to say, but I want to get my hands on that database.