Lawmakers must improve high school graduation rate

Bettering Tennessee’s dismal high school graduation rate is going to take time, work and money, but it is a job educators and state leaders must undertake with both force and zeal.

The economic well-being of this state is at stake. As the Press reported last month, just 79.5 percent of Tennessee students completed a high school diploma within four years and one summer ? the period generally used to figure the graduation rate. The state’s declining graduation rate is an ominous forecaster of the state’s likely economic prospects in the next decade.

The low graduation rate could have a negative impact on the economic development and industrial recruitment efforts of local communities.

What company ? searching for smart, motivated employees ? will want to locate in an area where the high school graduation rate is well below 80 percent?

Gov. Phil Bredesen has promised to make improving the graduation rate a priority in his second term. Specifically, the governor is pushing a $50 million plan to raise the rate to 90 percent by 2012. Bredesen has proposed placing a truancy officer in each of Tennessee’s 400 high schools, at a cost of about $25 million.

The most intriguing part of Bredesen’s proposal calls for the state to spend up to $30 million to reward students with full rides to state community colleges if they score at least 19 on the ACT.

These and many more such programs are needed if Tennessee is to improve its high school graduation rate. It’s important that Bredesen and members of the state General Assembly keep this in mind next year when they begin work to address the problem.