The Democratic leadership has discovered the solution to the drop out problem. Forget improvements to the educational model, such as pre-kindergarten education, making sure students actually learn something in K through 8 so they are ready for high school, improving teacher quality, ninth grade only schools, etc., etc. Heck no. All we have to do is raise the dropout age to 18. Wham, bam, problem solved.
If only it were that simple. But making kids who don't want to be in school go to school and sit next to kids who do is not a solution. Yeah, sure, the percentage of kids who receive a high school diploma will increase, but I doubt that the percentage of kids who earn a high school diploma will go up. In fact the percentage who actually learn something in high school may actually go down as the curriculum is dumbed down to get these other kids through the system.
This is a superficial idea that if implemented will lead to more disruptive classrooms, less time for teachers to teach, and ultimately discourage those students who are there to learn.
The Republicans got this one right: If you improve K-8 (and give a little more attention to 9th grade), then fewer students will want to drop out, high school will become a more meaningful learning experience and we will have a substantive improvement in the drop out rate.
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