Let state law help prevent dropouts
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Public education is a community initiative. That was Gov. Chet Culver’s message Wednesday at Destination Graduation, Iowa’s Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit in Des Moines. The summit gathered educators to develop statewide strategies for keeping young people in school. This commendable effort charges communities, not just school districts, with reducing the dropout rate.
Yet it is occurring in a state with laws that explicitly tell teens that it’s perfectly OK to drop out.
The same is true in Illinois.
It’s a striking anomaly in state law that regulates most other aspects of a teenager’s life. State law regulates when teens drink, drive, enter into a contract and register to vote.
For the years teens are in school, state law determines the number of classroom hours and days they are required to attend. It determines the competency of the teachers and even sets their compensation.
State law regulates almost every aspect of each state’s extensive public education system. Yet it empowers 16-year-olds to walk away from it all, no questions asked. Teens properly protected by state law from even setting foot in a casino, are empowered to make a miserable decision that will affect their entire lives.
Everyone else’s, too.
High school dropouts earn less and get in trouble more, incurring more taxpayer costs. High dropout rates decimate a community’s work force, hampering development efforts and relegating the local economy to low-wage, unskilled jobs.
That’s tremendous power for an uneducated 16-year-old.
Nineteen states have laws extending compulsory education to 18. Iowa and Illinois should join them.
Community-wide initiatives urging teens to stay in school will work far better without a state law that enables just the opposite.
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