The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

March 13, 2010

Conferees agree on bill to cut dropouts

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

CHARLESTON — Hoping to attack West Virginia’s one-in-five dropout rate, Senate and House conferees came to terms Saturday on a bill hiking the legal age to quit school from 16 to 17.

That in itself is hardly the “silver bullet” to reverse the 20 percent rate, acknowledged Sen. Randy White, D-Webster, but the legislation contains some other advances that are aimed at getting more students graduated.

A key component lets schools inaugurate vocational-technical training in the ninth grade for at-risk students, allowing them immediate entry into a program teaching them work skills.

“While, at the same time, if they don’t look like they’re going to fit in, they go into the GED program so they won’t be dropouts,” White said. “They’ll actually get a high school diploma, plus skills.”

White chaired a special Senate education subcommittee that toiled from day one of this session, seeking solutions to the alarming dropout rate.

At one stage, he called before his panel some students who had quit school to explain why they had given up on education. Also, White’s committee studied a special survey among students, taken by education officials, outlining the top 10 reasons they become disenchanted with school and decide to leave.

“I think it’s one of the best pieces of education legislation we’ve passed in years,” White said.

The senator was pleased that no federal officials were involved.

“My personal opinion is that No Child Left Behind kind of stymied innovation in states,” he said.

A decision was made in the Senate Finance Committee to leave the legal dropout age at 16, but this was restored once the bill headed into a conference committee.

“When you first look at it, you just don’t think it on itself is going to do anything,” White said. “I’ve always said this isn’t the silver bullet — raising the age alone isn’t going to improve the dropout rate. You’ve got to have these abilities for the kids to re-engage themselves in the education process and the other things in this bill do that. I think it’s wonderful.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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