ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
IN A COLUMN last month in Newsweek magazine, a Kalamazoo, Mich., high-school teacher lamented the peer pressure on students to have their own wheels - and get a job to make the monthly car payments.
``National Merit finalists pale in importance beside the student who drives his friends around in a shiny new Ford Probe,'' wrote Lyla Fox. ``Once cars and jobs enter the picture, it is virtually impossible to get students focused on school.''
Does anyone doubt that the car cult is a key reason kids drop out of school? Not the only reason, of course. Many drop out because they're bored, or they've fallen in with a bad crowd, or, maybe, they want to run away and join the circus. Some may drop out because must, to help their families. Too many girls, certainly, drop out because they're pregnant.
School officials know, though, that lots of kids leave school for the lure of a paycheck - never considering that the minimum wage may be the best they can expect without at least a high-school diploma or high-school equivalency certificate. Parents and teachers can lecture on this until they're blue in the face, but their warnings often fall on deaf ears.
Leonard Gereau, Franklin County's school superintendent, may have found a better way to get the message across: Let businesses do the talking.
Gereau's innovative idea also has been adopted by schools in Montgomery County, Salem and a handful of other Virginia districts. It has the strong endorsement by the Blue Ridge Regional Educational & Training Council. More school districts would do well to consider it.
Here's how the Gereau model works:
Dozens of businesses in the community agree to give high-school graduates, or those with the equivalency certificate, top priority for entry-level jobs. The message is not explicit, but it's surely implicit: Dropouts need not apply.
Tough, huh? Indeed - but potentially it could be the most effective dropout-prevention program to come down the pike. Moreover, it's a program that costs virtually nothing - and one from which businesses stand to gain as much as the kids who're convinced to complete their high-school education.
Under the program, the school systems essentially guarantee their product. Participating businesses looking to hire a graduate receive (with the grad's permission) a grade transcript, attesting that the job applicant has the necessary knowledge and skills for a job. Additionally, employers get school-attendance records and other information that can indicate a good work ethic and potential for advancement and leadership.
The program is too new to assess its effect on dropout rates. Already, though, Franklin County has seen an increase in applications from dropouts seeking to return to school or to qualify for a high-school equivalency certificate.
In a region where several localities have dropout rates higher than the state average (about 5 percent), this is an excellent way for schools and businesses to work together to attack a problem of mutual concern. Convincing kids to stay in school serves not only their interests. It also serves the long-range interests of employers for whom an uneducated work force is, more and more, of not much use.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB