Lynch: Raine dropout age by reacing at-risk kids

Governor John Lynch gained support from scores of educators last week to raise the school dropout age to 18, but fiscal conservatives warn a laudable goal like that will take money and huge effort. Indeed, it required both at Franklin High School, which has earned statewide recognition for lowering its dropout rate from 16-percent a year to 2 after years of networking with and listening to parents, business owners, civic leaders, kids and teachers. The school strives to keep kids in school learning stuff they know will help them in a global market that’s brutal to the untrained worker.

“Amazing work has been done in Franklin,” the governor told 200 educators at a conference in Concord Thursday called Heads Together. “My budget will have money for these kinds of alternative learning programs. The one at Franklin is helping students earn their diplomas. Today half a high school education is not enough. A diploma is the minimum admission to a better life.”

House Speaker Terie Norelli (D-Portsmouth) and Senate president pro-tem Maggie Hassan (D-Exeter) sounded the same theme at a press conference to push children’s issues. Both said the budget must fund proven alternative education programs for at-risk kids so they can graduate ready for college or a job market that craves technical skills and people who can think and express themselves.

State Representative Judie Reever (D-Laconia) has taken in 16 foster kids over the years and served for many years on the city school board. She declined to guess what it will cost to raise the dropout age without disrupting classrooms with kids unhappy to be there. She agreed it will take small class sizes and system patient enough to let slower kids learn at their own pace.

“We’ve got to catch them up, whatever it takes,” she said. “And lectures reach only 30-percent of the students. There has to be hands-on learning. We learn by doing.”

Former House speaker Gene Chandler (R-Bartlett) said New Hampshire is statistically one of the healthiest, best educated and wealthiest states, accomplishments that happened while the Republicans held power.

“You can always do better, but it’s a matter of money,” he said. “Some of these goals come with very hefty price tags.”

Berlin mayor Bob Danderson said the burden is actually on middle schools to engage kids who lag behind grade level, or they’ll never make it to senior year. Without new programs in place, he warned, forcing those unprepared young people to keep showing up for high school will disrupt the atmosphere for the kids who are able to learn the material.

“They start acting out in grades six and seven,” the mayor said. “That’s when they’re making decisions that will hurt them for the rest of their lives. They don’t even know it.”

Boston labor economist Paul Harrington told teachers and school administrators that factories formerly gave high school dropouts all the in-service training they’d need to make a decent living. But now a job market flooded with illegal immigrants demands two-year and four-year college degrees New Hampshire natives. The job prospects and earning potential for dropouts have declined sharply since the 1960s when the mill jobs began moving to China, Mexico and South America. A dropout stands to earn $781,000 in a career, while a person with a master’s degree can expect $3-million.

“Dropouts get lower wages and fewer hours,” Harrington said. “And the economic gap keeps getting bigger. If you get into the wrong algebra track in ninth grade you’ll never become an engineer or have a chance at the highest paying 10-percent of jobs. The lower a person’s skills, the higher the probability they’ll have a criminal record and go onto welfare.”

Danderson describes one kid who is getting crushed by all the global competition. In fifth or sixth grade, the pleasant red head used to catch Danderson’s attention while the mayor was walking to work. By grade eight the same youngster was smoking and doing worse things. Today he’s out of school and on the street with nothing to do but trouble.

“He’s lost his future. You wouldn’t have predicted it a few years ago,” Danderson said. “I was concerned when my kids were in middle school. Letting kids make big decisions all on their own is wrong. That’s when they need guidance. But if you don’t catch their interest, it’s almost impossible to teach grades seven and eight.”

Franklin school superintendent Jo Ellen Divoll said the district launched a grassroots effort to find out why kids dropped out and what they needed from school that wasn’t there.

“It was a lot of relationship issues,” she said.

Robert Braman, the principal at Franklin High, attributes the turnaround to a commitment to doing whatever it takes to reach and follow every student. A major federal grant helped the district canvass the community and create a range of programs: Student assistance counseling for mental and substance abuse problems, a healthy life choices curriculum, an off-campus academic recovery center, intensive remedial and literacy training, an alternative school in the former St. Mary’s school building. Each kid gets tracked closely. If one starts to slip, staff put their heads together to figure out why and devise a plan to get that student going again.

“We stopped putting kids in double jeopardy when they get suspended,” Braman said. “Now we let them make up the work they miss while they’re out.”

Sheri Ogrodowski, one of his 11th graders, takes part in the school-to-work program and holds down an afternoon job at the local Subway. She’s never considered dropping out, but she watched a classmate give up this year and quit.

“I haven’t talked to her since, so I don’t know how she’s doing,” Ogrodowski said. “But I’ve put together a good resume and I know how to find jobs and interview for them. Working while you’re in school lets you see what you need to be when you grow up.”

Reever warns it will take money to spark that curiosity and motivation. “Whatever it costs is cheaper than societal and prison costs if we let them fail,” Reever said. “We need to reach those kids much sooner. They drop out emotionally long before age 16. If you had a job you were failing at, you’d quit. Even in kindergarten, you can pick out the future class presidents and dropouts.”

Rep. Jim Pilliod (R-Belmont) heard the governor’s speech and urged fellow lawmakers to find whatever money the job takes.

“It’s not hard to figure out what we need to do,” he said. “The hard part is doing what we need to do. Our schools don’t start early enough. We are the only state that doesn’t require public kindergarten. Our 12 school districts without it are the only 12 in the country. We need early education for three-year-olds so they’re ready to read. Reading is crucial.”

Kayla McEachern dropped out of Laconia High last year but soon enrolled in the local Jobs for America’s Graduates program at the Vocational Technical School. It helps kids earn college credit while they get a GED. Now she has her equivalent diploma, she works at Bloom’s Variety Store, and she’s earned college credit for a course in small business management. Her future? College.

“At the high school it felt like there was no structure, no one to push me,” she said. “But I knew there was nothing for me if I stayed out.”