In a five-part series this week carried by WBUR, National Public Radio examines the cost of dropping out of high school through the stories of five people scattered around the country. Three of them dropped out years ago, and two teenagers are struggling to stay in school.
A high school degree is no guarantee of success, but the absence of one virtually ensures a life of economic struggle. The unemployment rate for high school dropouts is twice that of the general population. Lifetime earnings are $200,000 less than those who graduate, and $1 million less than college graduates. High school dropouts are also far more likely to commit crimes, abuse drugs, and become teenage parents.
Kenny Buchanan of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, didn’t think about any of that when he dropped out of high school 26 years ago. He was 18 and in the ninth grade, having flunked twice. Back then it was fairly easy to land a low-paying job, but now he finds many employers won’t interview anyone without a high school degree. He’s tried to get his General Equivalency Degree, but his math and reading skills aren’t up to par. “Dropping out of high school was one of the biggest mistakes I ever done,” Buchanan says.
The other people featured in the series offer different perspectives on the problem. Patrick Lundvick, a black kid from Chicago, drifted into the drug trade and dropped out; he’s now enrolled in a charter school targeting dropouts. Lauren Ortega of San Bernadino, California, got pregnant and dropped out; she’s now trying to earn her GED. Nick Jones, of Oconee County, South Carolina, dropped out before the 10th grade, like all his brothers and sisters. He dreams of becoming a professional mixed martial arts fighter. Danny Lamont Jones of Baltimore is struggling to stay in school while living in a homeless shelter.
The reasons each of these people dropped out are different, but the one constant seems to be a troubled home life. Lamont Jones, for example, is one of 14 children. His mother is an alcoholic with a 10th-grade education. Nick Jones’s father died when he was 11, and his mother seems more focused on her seven dogs than her children. Ortega says her parents did drugs and constantly fought.
–BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick says he’ll support one slot parlor as the debate over expanding gaming gets underway. The Brockton Enterprise reports on a new Senate rule that will ensure extra time for public debate of any gambling legislation. The Plainridge racetrack wants a piece of the action (still).
The Senate passes the sales tax holiday bill, while a rebate program for air conditioners and refrigerators gets off to a strong start.
Court officials are seeking $32 million in state funds to avert layoffs but not the planned closing of 11 courthouses, the Lowell Sun reports.
A bill revamping the administration of the state’s courts, including the hiring of a new civilian court administrator, is expected to come up for a vote in the House and Senate today, reports the Eagle-Tribune (via AP).
In his weekly Globe column, CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow says the the proposal to expand the state bottle bill is a green one — as long as it’s understood that this means it creates a new revenue stream for the state, not that it’s a environmental move that will make a significant difference on that front.
Former House speaker Tom Finneran says former House speaker Sal DiMasi is in a “tough boat.”
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Berkshire officials consider the long term ramifications for the local economy if the debt crisis continues.
A Hingham developer is bidding to lease part of the Hingham shipyard parking lot from the MBTA, and potentially turn it into a large retail outlet, reports the Patriot Ledger.
Potential post office closings worry residents of the remote island of Cuttyhunk, who say elimination of their post office would make life much more difficult, reports the New Bedford Standard-Times.
A Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar and Grill will open in Fall River, reports the Fall River Herald News in an article complete with plenty of baseball puns.
The Tom Menino–Wal-Mart standoff continues. The Globe editorial page weighs in, telling the retail giant and the mayor to start talking.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
With the clock still ticking, Speaker John Boehner fails to get his ducks in a row. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needles the House leadership. Time says House Speaker John Boehner has gone lame. The New York Times hits the streets in search of partisan reactions to the debt crisis. They talk to rich right-wingers on a golf course in Scottsdale, and then visit Brookline for a rebuttal. Investors are betting that six-month Treasury bills set to mature on August 4 will be the first to go belly-up. The Atlantic notes that Apple is now more liquid than the US government.
California moves to reform its referendum process.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Washington Post goes to Maine to take a look at how New Balance, the last major American athletic shoe manufacturer, is struggling to remain in business in the face of overseas competition.
Defrauded customers of Bernard Madoff will share in a $1 billion settlement from a hedge fund group owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, the Globe reports.
The Patriot Ledger urges nonprofits to improve their accounting practices in the wake of an IRS move that stripped 900 local nonprofits of their tax-exempt status because appropriate paperwork wasn’t filed. The Ledger also says some nonprofits were victims of faulty record keeping by the IRS.
Natick-based Boston Scientific plans to cut 1,400 jobs from its workforce, the Patriot Ledger reports. Here is the Globe account.
Mass. Market reports on Boston Beer Company’s move to fund microloans to potential competitors — other small craft brewers.
EDUCATION
Bill Gates, at the National Urban League convention in Boston, says teachers are the key to education success, which he calls the hardest civil rights fight of all, WBUR reports.
An MIT summer program tries to interest girls in science, the Lynn Item reports.
Faculty members at the University of Vermont say they’re outraged the president is taking a year-long leave to work on his marriage and pocketing more than $400,000 in pay and benefits, NECN reports.
HEALTH CARE
A Revere group home is fined $7,000 for not doing enough to protect a mental health worker who was murdered by one of the residents, the Eagle-Tribune reports (via AP).
TRANSPORTATION
Charles Chieppo endorses open road tolling in a column for Governing.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Peter Gelzinis highlights the case of a South Boston man allegedly framed for murder by Whitey Bulger, and kicks US Rep. Bill Keating along the way.
A man wrongly imprisoned for 12 years for a rape he did not commit was in a Boston courtroom yesterday to watch the man who did commit crime plead guilty to that crime and two other rapes and receive a 30-year prison sentence.
BishopAccountability.org releases a list of nine suspected pedophile priests, WBUR reports (via AP).
The Salem News reports police are dealing with a new crime trend: stolen car bicycle racks.