State-Journal.com - Many favor increasing dropout age to 18

Once again state educators seek legislation to keep kids in school longer, and although the measure has local support, it has never made it to the floor of the General Assembly.

Education is compulsory to the age of 16 in Kentucky. That could increase to 17 for the 2010-2011 school year, and 18 for the 2011-2012 school year under the proposal.

Kentucky Board of Education members reviewed the idea as part of their legislative agenda for the session that begins Jan. 5.

But this isn’t the first time the issue has come up. Legislators have tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to raise the dropout age, said Lisa Gross, communications director for the Kentucky Department of Education.

The most recent legislation was filed during the 2009 session. A House bill would have raised the age to 18 over a period of two years, but it died in committee.

“It hasn’t moved very far,” Gross said. “There are probably a lot of reasons for that, mostly because school systems will need some extra resources to work with these kids.”

Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said Thursday that raising the age for compulsory attendance isn’t enough – the state needs to “provide the infrastructure” districts need to keep kids in school.

That could come from offering more dual-credit courses, credit recovery programs and alternative settings, he said.

“I think that the spirit is willing, and that legislators agree for the most part that raising the dropout age is a good thing,” Gross said. “But this comes down to practical matters.”

Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, said he supports the idea but that it might not pass in the upcoming legislative session. In the current economic and budgetary crisis it will be hard to find funds for new proposals, he said.

“But I think we need to keep kids in school longer,” he said.

Despite the potential added cost, Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, said raising the age of compulsory education is important.

“We should have raised it a long time ago,” he said.

It would create a better-educated workforce and have benefits for economic development, Graham said.

“They could be earning money and paying taxes instead of being on the public dole,” he said.

Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, said the move would reduce the dropout rate and pay long-term dividends.

Having more kids stay in school will reduce the prison population, 70 percent of whom do not have a high school diploma, he said.

It costs about $19,000 to house an inmate for one year but the real price is higher, Carroll said. There are unseen costs such as paying to feed the inmate’s family, which could be another $20,000 per year, he said.

Franklin County Public Schools Superintendent Harrie Buecker says she would support the measure, if it left room for gifted students to graduate early.

“We know that the longer they’re with us, the more they’re going to learn,” Buecker said.

“We certainly do want to have our students as long as we can have them, to prevent them from being out in the community without a diploma.”

She thinks an increase in the compulsory attendance age could be accomplished by crafting a learning plan for every child, so teachers can reached them before the age of 16.

“We may be looking at expansion of the Phoenix Academy,” she said, pointing to the county’s credit recovery program housed at the Educational Development Center.

“We see so much success over there, and students who, for whatever reason didn’t make it at a traditional high school, are being very successful over there.”

Frankfort Independent Superintendent Rich Crowe said he is also in favor of the change.

“I like it, I like it a lot,” he said. “Simply because I think it’s our responsibility to keep kids in school all the way through 12^th grade, doing whatever it is we need to do to make it relevant and significant to them so they can finish school.”

Crowe says it could be difficult at first, but not impossible.

“We just have to create a situation where those kids who would normally drop out would want to stay in school instead.”

The state Board of Education’s other legislative priorities include:

>Extending preschool services to approximately 5,000 more children by expanding income eligibility guidelines, at a cost of $17 million

>Permitting local school boards to levy tax rates higher than the previous year, even if the compensating rate is lower

>Seeking an adjustment to the attendance-based state funding formula to account for the H1N1 outbreak

>Awarding grants to school districts for dropout prevention programs, and

>Adding chronically low student academic performance as a cause for removal of a superintendent or board of education member.

The board will consider the list again at its December meeting.