Facing America's High Dropout Rates

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.comFewer than sixty percent of students now entering four-year American colleges are likely to graduate. The completion rate is lower than for almost any other wealthy country. Poor and minority students have the worst graduation rate.

A new book about America's public universities explores the complex causes of the high dropout rate. The book is called "Crossing the Finish Line."

President Obama wants the United States to again have the world's highest percentage of college graduates by two thousand twenty. But to finish college, children first have to reach the starting line by getting there.

On September eighth, the president gave a nationally broadcast speech to students about the importance of staying in school. He spoke on the first day of classes at a high school in Virginia. He talked about personal responsibility, and used himself as an example of someone who overcame difficulties.

President Obama said: "My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasnt always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times whenI was lonely and felt like I didnt fit in."

But he told students that problems in their own lives should not stop them from learning. Mister Obama said: "That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class or dropping out of school. Thats no excuse for not trying."

This was not thefirst presidential speech to students. Ronald Reagan spoke from the White House in nineteen eighty-eight. And George H.W. Bush spoke from a school in Washington in nineteen ninety-one.

But many conservatives criticized plans for the speech. Some called it "socialized education" or federal interference in local schools. Others feared it would be too political. Some schools decided not to show the speech. But the White House released the text the day before the speech, and that calmed a lot of critics.

On September sixth, on the CBS program "Face the Nation," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said thirty percent of students do not graduate from high school. He called the dropout rate "staggering." It represents more than a million students every year who enter ninth grade but do not complete twelfth grade.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 10Sep2009)