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Education Reform -- Gateway to College launches in Philadelphia (Part 3 of 3)

By 3L at Seton Hall University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

The last installment of the Inquirer's look into Philadelphia's dropout crisis can be found here. The story is heavy on sentamentalism and light on introspection, but a few quotes are worth including:

[The need for programs for dropouts] still far outstrip the options. Since a study by Johns Hopkins University researchers detailing the city's dropout problem came out less than two years ago, the district has increased its dropout-program slots from 2,215 to 3,150 citywide, not including slots for earning general equivalency diplomas. All of those dropout slots are full, Collins-Shapiro said, and there is a 900-person waiting list of older teenagers with few credits. The goal is 5,000 slots by 2010.

But to achieve that would take about $50 million a year, compared with the $13 million the district now spends, Collins-Shapiro said.

. . . .

And even with those 5,000 slots, there would still be need. Philadelphia has more than 30,000 dropouts, according to the Johns Hopkins study. And that tally includes only students from the Classes of 2000 to 2005.

Full post as published by Urban Law Journal on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).