By Scott Elliott / guest columnist
October 06, 2007 11:30 pm
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There’s an old country saying that goes something like, “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
Well, there can be no doubt that Mississippi is in a hole, and has been for a long time, where high school dropouts are concerned. Each year that hole deepens by thousands upon thousands of young people, who for whatever reasons, fail to finish what they started in their K-12 public school experience. Specifically, the number of non-completers may be somewhere between 14,000 and 17,000 annually, referencing reports generated by State Economist Phil Pepper and the U.S. Census Bureau.
No matter the actual tally, one thing is abundantly clear — it’s an abyss of lost human potential already occupied by some 475,000 Mississippians over the age of 25 who never earned a high school diploma or GED.
The Mississippi Community College System, comprised of 15 institutions geographically blanketing the state, has proposed to join forces with the public school system to attack the dropout epidemic on both ends of the equation. State Public School Superintendent Dr. Hank Bounds advocates a “dropout prevention” program which would hopefully improve the K-12 retention rate. Community colleges, on the other hand, have asked the State Legislature to support a “Dropout Recovery” initiative designed to assist thousands of Mississippians each year in earning a GED while concurrently engaging in fast-track job training programs.
In essence, the Dropout Recovery program would equip participants with life skills and job skills — two things a citizen-worker must possess to adequately function in today’s global economy. The Adult Basic Education/GED preparation piece of the program will cause students to read, write, and solve mathematics problems at a higher level. Such literacy tools enable a worker to effectively interface with his/her employers and peers and meet the challenge of increasing responsibility. The fast-track job training piece could equip students with specific skills such as hanging sheetrock, laying floor tile, roofing, driving a commercial truck, welding, and the list goes on.
Empowered with such skills, a graduate of the Dropout Recovery program would be positioned to join the workforce in an entry-level capacity and/or transition into a community college certificate or degree program leading to even greater earnings potential.
How much will the Dropout Recovery program cost? Community colleges have established a goal of enrolling 4,250 students (or roughly 25 percent of the Census Bureau’s projected annual high school dropout pool). The colleges have requested $16,477,250 in support from the Legislature to conduct the program, which breaks down to $3,877 per student — the same amount of state support projected for a community college full-time equivalent student in FY08. That’s considerably less than the estimated $4,601 that same student would cost the State of Mississippi if he/she stayed in high school and completed their senior year.
The requested funds would enable each community college to craft training programs that might most benefit not only the individual, but also industry in the districts they serve. By that, one district might need a lot of welders; another might need more bricklayers. In any event, each community college will have to design curriculum, pay teachers, purchase program materials and supplies, and provide technological support among other expenses.
But the money would accomplish more than that. It would allow each college to provide “wrap-around” assistance to needy students for child care, transportation, and tutoring/mentoring — areas that have historically proven barriers to students persisting in their educational goals.
The question, however, is not so much what it will cost Mississippians to implement the Dropout Recovery program. More to the point, the question is, “how much will it cost us if we don’t?”
Dropouts who fail to earn at least a GED are typically relegated, at best, to minimum wage jobs. At worst, such people, who ultimately see no hope for a productive, meaningful future, will become beneficiaries of federal and state subsidy programs or gravitate to illegal activities and join another sorrowful Mississippi “hole” — that of our prison population. That growing community now numbers over 22,000, according to the Department of Corrections (DOC) Web site.
A person earning minimum wage is going to pay a maximum of about $197 in state income taxes and contribute very little to state sales tax revenues because of their limited buying power. Conversely, a sheetrock hanger, as an example, will likely earn almost $21,000 a year (given a wage of $10 per hour) and pay about $600 per year in state income taxes, not to mention contributing more to the economy in sales taxes.
An inmate? According to the DOC Web site, Mississippians pay about $13,571 per year to support each prisoner, based on FY05 figures. And consider this — Mississippi inmates function at about a 5th grade level, educationally speaking. The correlation between lack of educational attainment and the penchant for crime seems obvious.
So, in the end, the community colleges’ proposed Dropout Recovery program is all about attacking an economic and social dilemma. Economically speaking, we don’t need higher taxes in Mississippi. What we need is to build upon our current momentum by strengthening and broadening the tax base. Equipping more citizens with earnings power and, therefore, keeping them off subsidy rolls and out of prison is one way to bolster that tax base.
Socially speaking, there is no greater loss than that of human potential. So, at the end of the day, it’s a “pay me a little bit now to avoid paying me a lot more later” proposition. We have a choice between trying to instill hope in the hopeless and, therefore, improving the quality of life for all Mississippians or continuing to dig deeper economic and social holes.
And, sadly, some holes become graves. Something to ponder.
Dr. Scott Elliott is president of Meridian Community College.
E-mail him at selliott@mcc.cc.ms.us.
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