President Barack Obama announced Monday that $900 million in federal grants in the proposed FY 2011 budget would be available to school districts and administrators who work to transform roughly 5,000 failing school across the nation. While the proposal encourages transformation of the few thousand schools that produce half of America’s yearly 1.2 million high school dropouts, the reliance on federal government resources and direction to rescue America’s educational system falls short of true reform. The President’s proposal, detailed in a subsequent press release, encourages early intervention programs for students …
Barely half — a mere 52 percent – of students in America’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas graduated in the 2003-04 school year, according to the Department of Education. Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and founding chairman of the America’s Promise Alliance, called the situation “not just a crisis; this is a catastrophe.” Here’s one factor that has proven helpful to keeping youths in school longer: abstinence education. Studies show abstinent teens report, on average, better psychological well-being and higher academic achievement than those who are sexually active. As the data below …
