It's My Turn- The Texas Spring Observer

A challenge worth striving for
Sept. 24, 2009

Time magazine stated in the article “Dropout Nation” (2006) that “dropping out of high school today is to your societal health what smoking is to your physical health.” It’s debilitating and a handicap that a person of any age ought not to bear.

I started working on the state-wide public visibility aspect for the Reach Out to Dropouts Walk this past June and in the months following came to the realization that we as a society are just beginning the fight against a “dropout nation” and that it will be an arduous and sometimes disheartening challenge. But the need to take a stand for our younger generation is as serious as a heart attack and demands dedication.

The Reach Out to Dropouts Walk is a program that Houston Mayor Bill White, the educational nonprofit A+ Challenge and the Houston Independent School District initiated in 2004. It started out with 1,300 volunteers going to the homes of students in eight HISD neighborhoods.

Six years later, with the help of approximately 11,000 volunteers, the program has expanded its mission to more than 6,000 students across the state in the cities of Dallas, Ft. Worth, Midland, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, El Paso and Houston, as well as schools from 19 school districts in the Greater Houston area. Similar efforts have now sprouted up in other states like Iowa and Missouri that are modeled after the HISD initiative.

This is the first year that Spring ISD has held a walk, and they brought together 33 volunteers and visited 26 homes.

The focus of my work for the walk was to rally volunteers and bring recognition to the effort in various local communities. Although it proved challenging to get a string of pasta to stick on the wall of someone’s brain, I learned the essential need for persistence (and good aim).

I contacted the media, local business leaders, social and civic organizations as well as elected officials. I dreamt of sheep hurdling over statistical fences and returning to school. I had envisioned a mass of volunteers ascending onto houses on the day of the walk like vampires following the scent of blood and students coming to their doors in awe at the sight of their entire local community at their doorstep, pleading with them to take a greater stand in their future.

I tried to paint this portrait to others, and persuade them to join in the effort but came up against an unnerving complacency. It was either the “I’m unaffected by someone else’s child’s mistakes” syndrome or the “I have no sympathy for the lazy-hearted” ideology.

Yet I have learned that dropouts face a stigma that is both misplaced and untrue and not at all encouraging to them to finish their education. Only a small percentage of students leave because of the freedom they believe it offers. The majority drop out because they don’t feel adequately challenged in the classroom or to find relief from the burdens of their family’s income or socioeconomic status, falling victim to the push and pull of institutional forces.

A young girl has to stay home and take care of her siblings because her family cannot afford day care. A young man works the night shift at a local store and doesn’t feel that he can stay awake through a seven-hour school day. In general, education is the last rung on the totem pole of priorities because today’s young people deal with many more real-world challenges than homework and household chores.

A study done on Youth Enrollment and Employment by the Department of Labor Statistics says that “a little less than one-quarter of teenagers (24 percent) were both enrolled and employed during the 2007 school months.” Of the many unflattering words to describe teenagers today, lazy is not one I would use.

It has also been a challenge not to ruffle the feathers of those who believe that there is not a “dropout problem.” According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2004-05 the number of dropouts in grades 7-12 in Texas public schools rose to a little over 18,000, which is an 11-percent increase from the number of dropouts in 2003-04. On a national level, approximately 3.8 million young adults in the United States were not enrolled in school in 2004.

But to those who still think they’re not affected by a high school dropout they neither know nor had help in turning out, a few more facts and figures. Studies show that high school dropouts only make an average of $19,000 a year and are more likely to be unemployed, live in poverty and stay on government assistance longer than those with at least a high school degree. Dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be incarcerated, which costs taxpayers upwards of $150,000 a year.

Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education, said that dropouts cost the United States "more than $260 billion... in lost wages, lost taxes and lost productivity over their lifetimes." The U.S. could save more than $17 billion in Medicaid and health care expenses for the uninsured if every high school student graduated. With young adults who have the minimum skills and credentials necessary to function in today's increasingly complex society and technological workplace, every member of society will undoubtedly have to pick up the slack somewhere.

On the morning of the sixth annual Reach Out to Dropouts Walk, the rain kept students home, as it did the volunteers. It was not the overwhelming mass of support I had hoped for, and I felt silently disappointed. But the moment I saw the young man come to the door and look at the handful of teachers and school administrators, the mayor, and new superintendent, I realized that a handful of support was enough, and his promise to return to school was honest.

The key to these success stories is to give students alternative options. An example is the Advanced Virtual Academy, a new-brand, non-traditional school initiated by HISD that has extended hours and online classes for students in grades 9-12. The flexible “shifts” allow students to continue their education around outside jobs. I hope that every school district can implement similar programs, and shed all rigid practices. We have seen how transformations can happen from the ground up and how true grassroots efforts can change a nation. Now is the time to come together and collectively to be the change we see in our communities and inspire the change we want in the world.