Graduation rates...concerned?

The other night I caught Lou Dobbs talking about graduation rates. Mr. Dobbs is by no means on my list of loyal conservatives, as he almost always chooses the liberal side of every story. But, Mr. Dobbs, in my opinion, does try to hang out inside of what is true and rarely stoops to the likes of those who nightly speak in fallacies. Anyway, all this to say that I was surprised by Mr. Dobbs and his reaction to the numbers regarding graduation rates. Here are some excerpts from the transcript of his show:

DOBBS: Tonight, recent studies show that high school dropout rates are far higher than educational institutions had been reported. Today, one quarter of white high school students drop out of high school. For blacks and Latinos, the dropout rate is 50 percent.

High school dropout rates have been rising steadily for 30 years, but incredibly, schools and administrators lie, cheat, or invent more positive graduation figures out of thin air.


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This fall, 4.3 million children will enter high school in this country, a third -- or more than a million -- will never graduate. They are coming to high school with poor math and reading skills, become bored and frustrated, and then drop out.

Graduation rates peaked in 1969 and have declined for most of the past 30 years. And of those who do graduate, too many lack the skills to enter college.

JAY GREENE, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: Well, of the about four million students who enter high school, only about 1.3 million students, by our estimate, graduate and have taken the required college prep courses.

TOM LUCE, ASST. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: We have a problem. You know, of about every hundred students that enter ninth grade, only about 67 graduate. And we just can't have that in this country. And we've got to correct the problem.

ROMANS: Correct the problem and correct it soon. Researchers say the economic fall-out of these rising drop-out rates will be devastating. High school drop-outs have much higher rates of poverty, imprisonment, welfare enrollment. And even if they can get a GED and get a job, today's high school drop-outs, they'll make at least 35 percent less than high school drop-outs of a generation ago. There's no time to lose in this.

DOBBS: It is literally wasting an entire generation. The fact that school administrators and state government, education departments and for that matter yes, the federal government education department, which is an altogether separate issue, somebody is either lying or they're absolute fools not to be able to come up with these numbers. ROMANS: At best, they are literally guessing. At worst, they are trying to keep the numbers high for their federal funding and so that they can meet federal statutes, No Child Left Behind, et cetera.

DOBBS: This is not only absolutely unacceptable for what is presumably the world's only super power. It's un-American to deny these kids an opportunity for a great public education. It's criminal.

ROMANS: Lou, we're not even in the top ten in the world for graduation rates anymore.

To quote one of my teachers, "Wow!"

I have a simple solution for education...competition. If we allow parents to choose the school that will educate their children, schools that do not do the job will disappear as quickly as their students. That is my two cents...for tonight. Blessings!