An educated guess. pt 2

I was a straight B and C student all through high school with very little to show after leaving other than a degree. I never cared that much or tried all that hard. I knew from my junior year on that I was going to be a musician/recording engineer. I was going to take two years at the community college in the recording arts program and move on to bigger and better things. Then I walked into my first class in college, a 200-level accounting class, and I decided I was going to be an accountant. Four years later I am a straight B and C marketing major.

I am far from the person who should be telling people to do their homework and study for your exams. I do think that we should look at where our nation, state and city are going, as it pertains to education, and think about the long term affects. While the whole nation is in a state of flux we are looking to do, what I consider, one of the most foolish things we could possibly do; cut education funding.

I went to Wyoming Public School where they have only let go a few teachers, however, they have cut the counseling staff down to only one staff member. This means for 851 students there is only one person to tell those students what they need to do to graduate and help those students figure out post-secondary education goals. This, to me, is a scary thought. I worry about students not wanting to go to college but what scares me more than that are students who are questioning whether or not to even graduate.

I’ve heard arguments, when discussing this topic, ranging from blaming teachers and parents to blaming lazy students. Don’t get me wrong those things are to blame as well, but I think we can blame those of us who are afraid or too lazy to try and help. Grand Rapids has been spending so much time lately talking about supporting the arts and getting Google to Grand Rapids that we might have gotten ahead of ourselves. The arts are great and I thoroughly support them and I think our city would be much better off if Google came here but these should be back burner issues compared to education.

Most people do not care to look at the actual affects on a community it may have if students drop out. I remember saying to my friends that if that person drops out it is one less person I have worry about fighting for my job. However, the real numbers are a little scary.

Keep in mind when I use numbers I am being extremely conservative. The numbers I will use are based on a survey done in 2005 report by the US Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. This survey says those who do not graduate high school will earn, on average, $9,600 less. This means that each person who does not graduate will not be able to put that money back into our economy. In addition the report say that, "Dropouts also make up disproportionately higher percentages of the nation’s prison and death row inmates." meaning an that those dropouts will have a higher burden on our local crime and punishment sector. If that wasn't enough the report continues to say that, regardless of income, those without degrees have poorer health than those with a diploma. With that being said, they are also less likely to have health insurance, in fact 18 percent less according to the Employment Policies Institute. While I may be jumping to conclusions it seems logical that if those who who drop out are in poor health and they do not have health insurance they will be either less likely to seek medical attention or seeking medical attention primarily by use of emergency rooms since they likely will have no primary care physician. These things all have associated costs.

This is where my (unrealistically small) numbers get really big quickly. I will use a fairly simple formula; one student dropping out equals $10,000. This $10,000 is a mixture of those different things discussed above. This number is multiplied with each school in the Grand Rapids Public School District having 15 drop outs yearly (if each class has 100 students and the school has an 85% graduation rate which is unlikely). Just in Grand Rapids Public High Schools, comprised of seven schools, we would lose $1,050,000 in our local economy. This does not include other surrounding schools or alternative education or even the Wyoming Public Schools (Godfrey alone had only 37.8% graduation rate in 2007 according to edweek.org)

Now, while all of this frustrates me, having this information does no good if we are not using it to better educate our citizens on how to better educate our young people. I did not write this article to make you mad at the 16 year old who is thinking of dropping out. The purpose of this article is to get people to try and make real change. With that said I don't want 30 people trying to be on the school board or superintendent, I want to see people going to local high schools and teaching kids the reasons why they need a diploma. I would like to see volunteers mentoring students on how to take out a student loan for college or talking to a classes about how scared and frustrated you were in high school. In no way whatsoever am I saying that teachers aren't doing a good job of this; I just think that these budget cuts have made it harder for teachers to do their job and still have time to help students one on one. 

I've heard all my life that if you want to play politics safe just run on a campaign saying you support education. Conservative or liberal that is one that everyone can get behind. However, sometimes just saying "I support education" doesn't actually get kids to graduate. But, it is not only our politicians and elected officials that can make these changes. Each person who has graduated or has a kid in school or has a daughter, son, niece, nephew in school can make a difference in helping our teenagers graduate. 

As a college student I always planned on leaving the state once I got my degree. I saw foreclosure signs and store closing signs as a sign that this state was dying. And it might be dying. However, this could also be an opportunity for us to pick ourselves up and take advantage of this changing economy. We may not make many car parts in West Michigan anymore but we do have a thriving tourism industry. We don't make as much furniture but we do save lives on the medical mile. We need to inspire kids to learn and be creative and seek opportunities to grow and help the community. So if you actually support education really do something. 

What I'm saying.

If we are truly interested in keeping kids from dropping out we need to actually work at it. Obviously we cannot all just go to schools and walk into classrooms talking to kids. I'd like to see people go to school board officials, principals, and superintendents and ask what they can do to help. It does not have to take over your life it could just be an hour every week or two. The goal is to get kids to listen and understand that we care about them. It is important for everyone.

(This post has been placed as an opinion article on therapidian.org )