“Finishing high school is absolutely basic to being a success at any place in our society. We can’t afford this.”
Those were the words that former Secretary of State Colin Powell sharedwith CNN regarding the high (and rising) rate of high school dropoutsaround the country. Powell and his wife, Alma, founded the America’sPromise Alliance in 1997 in an effort to make sure more young peoplegraduate from high school and are ready for college and/or theworkforce. The Alliance works to raise awareness, and they conducted a2008 study that determined that only 52 percent of Hispanic and 53percent of African Americans graduate with a regular diploma in fouryears, which puts the national rate at 70 percent.
There is also a disparity between the dropout rates in major urbanschool districts and the rates in more affluent suburbs surrounding thecity. Overall, high school graduation rates are 15 percentage pointslower in urban schools than they are in the suburbs, and in 12 cities,the difference was more than 25 percentage points.
Paul Lewis, a mortgage broker in Chicago, dropped out of high school at17 and didn’t get his GED until he was 20. “I lost a lot of time,” hesays. “People may look at those three years as justthree years, but it set me back in terms of being able to compete withmy peers for jobs. I was able to get back on the right track — but ittook me a good seven years just to work my way back to square one interms of financ[ial] and career options.”
The Alliancealso holds dropout prevention summits all over the U.S. Theirobjective? To sound the alarm and motivate others to help in the fightagainst educational apathy. There have been more than 100 held so far.Alma Powell chairs the Alliance, and Colin Powell may be its staunchestadvocate and most visible affiliate; but the success of theorganization is truly dependent on those who lead the charge on agrassroots level. Local advocates and civic leaders must get activelyinvolved in the educational futures of young people.
