California drop out crisis

It is great that the Sacramento Bee found this report. These alarming figures have been known to civil rights activists in schools for over a decade.

Red flag raised on state dropouts

The problem among blacks and Latinos is at the crisis stage, a study warns.

By Laurel Rosenhall -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, March 24, 2005
Only about half of California's African American and Latino ninth-grade boys graduate from high school within four years, a new study reveals.

The report, "Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in California," is being issued today at a conference in Los Angeles where civil rights advocates and education researchers will present findings on racial disparities in high school graduation.

It's part of a national campaign that has led to legislative changes concerning high school graduation reporting in Illinois and Ohio.

Researchers at the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, which produced the report, are hoping for stronger results in California. They say the state's high overall dropout rate and even higher dropout rate for most nonwhite students amounts to an "educational and civil rights crisis" that will cost billions in lost wages, more prisoners and greater dependence on public health care.

"If students don't make it through high school, they really don't have any kind of chance in our economy," said Gary Orfield, author of the report and director of the Civil Rights Project. "And if communities don't make it through high school, their future is very severely threatened."

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/education/story/12615096p-13469172c.html

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
~ George Orwell

The Governor will not have anything to say about this. Instead he will talk about teacher tenure.