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 ore
than a quarter of high-school students don't earn diplomas, according
to a study released today by the Manhattan Institute and the Black
Alliance for Educational Options.
"Far fewer
students are graduating high school than we may have believed and
far fewer than we would wish," writes the study's author, Jay
P. Greene. "The graduation rates are shockingly low for African-American
and Latino students nationwide."
Although the
National Center for Education Statistics reports an 86-percent graduation
rate for the class of 1998 — with almost no disparity between
black and white students — the figures are actually much worse,
says Greene.
The problem
is that the NCES treats General Educational Development certificates
and similar alternatives as if they were authentic high-school diplomas.
Once GEDs and their kin are factored out, the national graduation
rate drops to 74 percent. There are significant racial and ethnic
differences as well: 78 percent of whites graduate, compared to
56 percent of blacks and 54 percent of Hispanics.
The rates also
vary enormously from place to place. In Iowa, 93 percent of students
graduate from high school. In Georgia, it's 57 percent. Blacks appear
to do best in West Virginia, where 71 percent graduate; they do
worst in Wisconsin, where only 40 percent graduate.
"Where
we see severe problems we should be more open to new ideas for how
to revitalize our schools and improve those situations," concludes
Greene.
One of these
unstated new ideas is school choice, which is new only in the sense
that it hasn't been tested widely. It took yet another political
beating last week, when one of the politicians most associated with
it — New Jersey Republican Bret Schundler — lost badly
in his race for governor.
Greene's study
highlights the continuing need for experimenting with school choice,
but it is clear that political progress won't come until the people
it would most obviously help — poor people — embrace the
idea in a way they currently have not. Significant legal progress,
on the other hand, may arrive soon. Briefs have just been filed
in the first school-choice case to reach the Supreme Court. Supporters
include New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who submitted a combined brief
with Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist. "Injecting choice and competition
into urban K-12 education," they write, "can create an
effective market in K-12 schooling that succeeds in adequately educating
most city children, an outcome America's cities desperately need
in order to thrive again."
The Manhattan
Institute-BAEO study may be read here.
For the latest
on the Supreme Court case, visit the Institute for Justice website.
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