A Tale of Two Americas: Dropouts vs. College Bound

The article you are about to read is nothing new. And that’s the problem.

A new report shows that less than 50 percent of students graduate from high school in 17 of America’s largest cities, reports The Associated Press via Education Week. As I said, no surprise, but troubling nonetheless.

Even nationally, only about 70 percent of high school students graduate on time with a regular diploma, reports AP. About 1.2 million teens nationwide drop out annually.

In some cities, the numbers are so bad, it’s difficult to comprehend:

High School Graduation Rates (percent)
24.9 || Detroit
30.5 || Indianapolis
34.1 || Cleveland

Although we live in a place called the United States of America, it is anything but. Consider that elite colleges are turning away over-qualified kids in droves, reports The New York Times.

Harvard rejected 93 percent of its 27,462 applicants, reports the Times. Other top-tier schools report similar rejection rates.

Most of these kids will find acceptance to other colleges. The point is, some kids are getting fantastic public and private educations.

It’s sad, but we live in a nation where the system works for some, but not all. Wealth, race and parenting are endlessly blamed for the inequities, of course.

Here’s a more extreme example I found in an Atlanta Journal Constitution comment:

No pity for these kids. They’d rather listen to Jay Z and smoke weed while others work hard. How about we take a look t the demographics. We know that a lot of these “poor minority students” have a family withore money than immigrant Chinese, for instance, yet Chinese are in a leaugue of their own.

I know in California poor Whites proportionally outscore rich Blacks on the exit exam. Its the cultures fault, not the institution.

I left the typos in since they seemed relevant here.

We can argue about race and culture all we want. The problem still remains the same:

Millions of children in this nation grow up uneducated and face lifelong poverty. These people grow up to become victims of society because they do not know how to defend themselves. Others turn to crime or drugs or both.

The fact is, those stuck in the rut of under-education are unable to escape it. Does the reason matter? American lives are getting ruined while we fight about the social reasons even while it becomes ever clearer that these problems are not going to go away on their own.