First aired on November 9, 2011 from KPLU
For All Things Considered broadcast.
Last month, Tyra Banks and the national Get Schooled Foundation visited 400 students in the Bronx in New York City. Banks is one of several celebrities who record messages encouraging kids to go to school. Seattle is one of the latest cities to try it out — Mayor Mike McGinn’s office is spending nearly $50,000 to coordinate and implement the effort. To hear more about this story go to: Seattle Says Yes.
Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes awareness of the important role that school attendance plays in achieving academic success. It aims to ensure that every school in every state not only tracks chronic absence data for its individual students but also intervenes to help those children and schools. For more information please visit http://www.attendanceworks.org/
Watch this video about Chronic Absenteeism
http://youtu.be/o342iAzYiHc
Across America, less than 50% of young Black males will graduate from high school.
Watch Tavis Smiley Reports: “Too Important to Fail” on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.
Every year, approximately 1.3 million students drop out of high school — 7,000 students a day. On average, only 72 percent of America’s children graduate. Less than 60 percent of Latino, African American and Native Americans earn a high school diploma. For minority males, the number has been consistently near or below the 50 percent mark.
The economic impact of children dropping out of high school amounts to a third of a trillion dollars over their lifetimes in lost wages, productivity and taxes. The median earnings for individuals who do not complete high school are $12,000 a year. Those who receive a high school diploma receive, on average, an additional $10,000 a year. According to children who have left school and those at risk, dropping out establishes almost an insurmountable obstacle course for life, depriving a person of both opportunity and hope.
This is an American tragedy. But it is a tragedy we can correct.