Dropouts bill put on hold

[longnecker]

Dropouts bill put on hold

Opponents cite cost of hiking minimum attendance age to 18

DOVER -- A day after President Barack Obama called on states to increase the compulsory age for public education to 18, lawmakers in the Delaware House raised questions about the cost and implications of such a move.
Legislation to raise the age at which Delaware students could lawfully drop out of school was tabled after a hearing before the House Education Committee on Wednesday, amid opposition from those worried about additional costs and unintended consequences.
House Bill 244, sponsored by Rep. Debra Heffernan, would raise the minimum dropout age in Delaware from 16 to 18.
Currently, 20 states require students to attend school through age 18.
Proponents of raising the compulsory attendance age say it's an essential component to raising graduation rates.
Obama highlighted the issue in his State of the Union address Tuesday.
"[W]hen students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma," he said. "So tonight, I call on every state to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18."
During the hearing on her bill, Heffernan alluded to the president's challenge and gave her own reasons for supporting a higher minimum dropout age.
"Not completing high school represents a severe lifelong limitation," said Heffernan, D-Brandywine Hundred South. "They're more likely to rely on government services like Medicaid or food stamps, or end up in the judicial system; and that is a cost to taxpayers."
Approximately 1,442 Delaware students under 18 dropped out of high school last year, representing 3.7 percent of all high school students in the state, according to the state Department of Education.
The dropout rate has declined in recent years. In the 2008-09 school year, 1,983 students -- or 5.1 percent -- dropped out of high school, state data show.
Delaware's statewide graduation rate last school year was 87.53 percent. That graduation rate is calculated based on students who start in the ninth grade and graduate four years later from the same school. read more
http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...ll|text|Home|p

These fine thoughts coming from someone who's kids don't have to attend public Middle and High Schools dealing with kids who don't want to be there and their parent could care less.

[Tralee]

I was just reading that, what a shame, high school drop outs have so little chance of success in life. Keeping them in school, even in a special class, would be so good for them. Personally, I think 16 is too immature to make such a final decision.

[Brainstorm]

I was just reading that, what a shame, high school drop outs have so little chance of success in life. Keeping them in school, even in a special class, would be so good for them. Personally, I think 16 is too immature to make such a final decision.

My reactions to this issue are:

1. The percentages of children who fail to graduate from H.S. (especially in major cities) has been truly shocking for a decade or more. I'd long ago have allocated scarce government resources to that issue instead of projects such as fussing over school lunch options. Our nation's future may be more endangered by the failure of the next generations to see education as both their prime job and responsibility AND ticket to a good life than any other factor.

2. If a kid is at the point of dropping out, the parent(s) lost the battle for influence and control long ago, and no government edict is gonna turn that ship around at that stage.

[DamonRunyonFan]

"Rep. Joe Miro raised another argument in opposing the bill. Students who drop out, he said, often do so because they're not well served by the traditional high school. Forcing those students to stay in school until age 18, instead of focusing efforts on alternative education programs, does them a disservice, he said."

I have a question for Rep. Joe Miro. Would he support Rep. Deb Heffernan's sponsored bill to compel students to attend school until age 18 if she supports a bill of his that would propose more funding to open alternative vocational schools and for our public schools ?The additional funding for keeping our young people in school until 18 could come from taking the money for building the new Barley Mill Road mall development that the Scott's want ---or even building a vocational school for troubled inner-city youth on the Barley Mill Road rezoning site . I think that we need better schools ;not better malls for drop-out kids to roam .

[Tralee]

I have to agree with new person DRF, vocational schools used to be a viable alternative, and manufacturing needs skilled workers badly, welders etc., as a nation we have to return to the realization that college isn't for everyone. A skilled carpenter is just as valuable as a skilled surgeon, each contributes a valuable skill to society. Rather than try to mold kids into some "perfect" career, why not let those whose skills are not strictly academic but have hands-on skills that, quite honestly, you are born with and who can be trained to be better and trained to have a very good career as something other than an accountant or lawyer or doctor, be trained in that career?

[M.Opaliski]

This Bill is about funding, and not just for the schools. When kids drop off the School's Roll that student's funding disappears. Less funding means less Teachers, less Teachers means less Union Dues to the DSEA which means less Campaign Donations to...

Also, the Bill contains language that allows students to drop out at 16 if they're working or if they have a parent's permission.

[DamonRunyonFan]

@M. Opaliski,

Also, the Bill contains language that allows students to drop out at 16 if they're working or if they have a parent's permission.

I think that makes the bill even better in the long run. The money saved by a 16 year old who decides to leave school because he is already working should go to rewarding the American business that hired the young guy or girl. Reward the US business by providing incentives for them to pay for sending their employees back to school for regular upgrades and training in their particular fields.

[M.Opaliski]

If allowing them to leave at 16 is good, and that's exactly the way it is now what's the freaking point of this Bill?

Thinking that the State is going to award a Business with the money that it's not spending on the student isn't exactly living in reality.

[DamonRunyonFan]

There are always exceptions. Most 16 year olds are not working;especially in today's economy where many employers grade new employee applicants on their willingness to relocate, travel, upgrade their skills as much as possible on the latest technology and accoutrements of the field. Quite a lot for any teenager to deal with so why not require them to stay in school until 18?

[longnecker]

There are always exceptions. Most 16 year olds are not working;especially in today's economy where many employers grade new employee applicants on their willingness to relocate, travel, upgrade their skills as much as possible on the latest technology and accoutrements of the field. Quite a lot for any teenager to deal with so why not require them to stay in school until 18?

So who that hires 16y.o.s is getting that strict?? McDonalds or TacoBell?