Fighting the epidemic

Unemployment in the Rio Grande Valley has always been higher than the national average, making competition for jobs — especially good-paying jobs — especially fierce. New businesses will receive hundreds of applications for a handful of jobs. Residents talk openly about the "brain drain" that plagues the region; many of our best and brightest minds find it necessary to go elsewhere to find quality jobs.

Our national financial crisis and lingering unemployment only worsens the situation, as more people compete for available jobs.

This makes education all the more important, as it increases options, and chances for employment, for those who have gone farther in school.

Sadly, South Texas has earned a reputation for its low levels of education. Just over half of the region’s students get their high school diplomas. A 2007 study by Johns Hopkins University labeled Valley public schools "dropout factories."

The problem isn’t unique to the Valley. Texas’ overall school completion rate is lower than the national average, and educators across the country are looking for ways to keep more students in school. Nationally the problem has been called a "silent epidemic," robbing the country of productivity and technological advancement that more educated minds could provide.

Local school, business and community leaders have increased their efforts to reducing the dropout rate. Many in McAllen, Brownsville and the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo areas, among others, recently sought out dropouts in their areas. The professionals went door to door, talking to dropouts and their families about the importance of completing their education. The United Way of Southern Cameron County last week received a $50,000 grant from AT&T to study the effectiveness of Los Fresnos’ drop intervention and recovery programs.

These are just the latest efforts. Other programs including Step Up, YouthBuild and Project GRAD have operated in the Valley for years. Their success, however, has been only marginal.

Certainly, many factors work against America’s students, including economic hardships that draw people into the work force early in order to help support their families. In the Valley, high teen pregnancy rates and the fact that many families’ students are first-generation Americans whose parents aren’t educated add even more challenges toward staying in school. The popular strategy of steering students into job training classes might actually reduce the perceived value of a general education, and work against graduation rates.

Nationally, America’s Promise Alliance, headed by Colin and Alma Powell and sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has created the Grad Nation, which aims to turn awareness of the problem into results.

There’s no shortage of groups and individuals looking for solutions. Suggestions for remedies have included smaller schools with smaller classes, mentoring programs, and increasing parental involvement. Most likely all factors contribute to reducing dropout rates.

Evidence exists in our nation’s private and charter schools, where dropout rates are lower. They do have smaller classes, and professional incentives to keep teachers motivated.

They also tend to have more motivated parents. And that is where efforts to keep students in school have to begin. Parents are children’s first teachers, and generally spend more time with them than anyone else. Students’ statements and behavior might suggest otherwise, but parents are always influential in their children’s life decisions.

But it is a problem that everyone can address. Parents can guide, professionals can mentor, educators can seek and adopt the most effective strategies toward keeping students motivated and learning.

A less educated population affects all of us. All of us, then, should be interested in working toward reducing our dropout rates.