High School Dropout Crisis

“Just under 4 million kids begin 9th grade every year, but about 1/4th of them don’t make it to graduation. That is almost 1 million dropouts every year. According to one estimate from the American Council on Education, there are nearly 40 million Americans who never graduated from high school.”

We had a successful national campaign against smoking. We need to have a successful national campaign against dropping out of school. The President of the United States should state repeatedly, “It is not acceptable to drop out of High School.” This needs to be repeated by every Governor and every Mayor and every teacher and every Mom and every Dad until we are successful. Furthermore, there needs to be immediate consequences if a child is kicked out of High School or drops out.

One severe consequence could be that anyone dropping out of High School would be required to serve in the military until they obtained their G.E.D. or their 21st birthday. Military service could consist of a military work corps which constructed and repaired roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure for our country or alternately, service could consist of straight-up military service. In both situations, there would be course work available to all military personnel, in the evenings. so as to allow one to obtain their G.E.D. promptly if they should wish to get out of their military requirement early.

The purpose of this program is to ensure that as many US citizens as possible have a High School diploma or equivalent, and that all those who do not at least have good work habits by the time they are 21 years of age and legal adults.

Such a program would also clearly increase the quality of education for current High School students: (1) it would empower our High School teachers; (2) it would also encourage students who might otherwise drop out to focus on their studies; (3) it would also create a better studying and learning environment for all students in the High School because there wouldn’t be the distractions of the students who are paying no attention at all.

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