If you’re like me, you are dreading the daily news reports on shootings in the Chicago area. You are aghast at the deadly arithmetic, especially the tolling of Chicago school-aged children who are being killed. It is a frightening numbers game, with an es
Those numbers are sickening, and even more sickening are the projections that warm weather, and increased gang violence, and easy access to handguns, will swell that number in the weeks and months to come.
But while those numbers are indeed terrible, and I feel for the families of those who have been lost to violence, another set of numbers released recently sicken me even more, and are probably even more tragic for our society.
A report released by Colin Powell’s America’s Promise Alliance finds that only 53.4 percent of the nation’s Black students graduate from high school. As desultory as those numbers are, the numbers for Chicago in the Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation, are even worse, at 51.5 percent. Nearly half of Chicago’s Black young people are not finishing high school.
Most of them drop out, and while some of them later return to school to get a General Equivalency Diploma, most of them have simply ceased their academic life. The consequences of such a terrible drop out rate are many, and none of them are positive. In fact, it could be argued that one of the reasons for the carnage on our streets and in our neighborhoods is the lack of academic achievement, and, in turn, employment, of the residents.
“The number one predictor of a young person’s future success is whether they graduate from high school,” Alma Powell, chair of America’s Promise Alliance, said in the report. The report also quotes the Alliance for Excellent Education, which estimates that high school dropouts from the class of 2006-07 will cost the U.S. more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes.
“Young people of color are most affected, because nearly half of all African American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class, while less than six in 10 Hispanic students will. Experts say that those who drop out are more likely to be incarcerated, rely on public programs and social services, and go without health insurance than those who graduate from high school,” according to the report.
The drop out rate shows that the numbers of dropouts and the number of murdered students are related. Those students who have dropped out of school are finding other ways to occupy their hours and gangs have been quick to fill in the time. Drug abuse and crime are also more prevalent among those who lack the education and the skills to successfully compete for jobs in an increasingly technological society.
As bad as Chicago’s drop out rate is, we are not in the bottom half of big cities. In Detroit public schools, only 24.9 percent of all students graduate. But this is hardly any reason to gloat. If half of our students are not finishing school, not receiving a basic education, not preparing themselves for higher education, or additional skills, or meaningful employment, they are instead preparing themselves for lives on the margins of society.
If half of our students are not ready to be a part of this economy, then they will only be able to participate either as recipients or as predators. Solutions, of course, are complex. Our dropout rate defies easy answers, and it is not just a function of fixing the schools. We have to fix our families, our neighborhoods and our schools.
Education is supposed to be one of the sources of hope in this country. An education is supposed to open doors, provide opportunities, expand horizons, and be a stepping-stone to the American Dream. A high drop out rate signals that many of our children have little hope, and if there is no hope, life in a gang, or on the streets, or wielding a firearm, becomes an alternative.
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Those escalating numbers of young people shot dead on our streets are one of the consequences of our not educating our kids.
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