Apr 21 2008
Perdue, Moore Discuss High School Drop Out Rates
Dropouts don’t just hurt themselves financially by not getting a diploma. They hurt the state. North Carolina is losing at least $169 million annually in taxes and public spending on the 38,100 students in the class of 2005 who quit, according to a report released last fall by a pair of school-choice groups.
Why is the state spending $169 million in tax dollars on high school drop outs? The solution here is pretty clear. Stop paying for them. These people made the conscious choice to drop out of school, therefore they need to live with the consequences of their actions rather than the state allowing them to leech off the responsible citizenry like parasites. There is no reason why anybody needs to be concerned about these people. They put themselves in their situation. Let them get themselves out of it.
“You’re looking at a leader who believes that in the 21st century, you’ve got to have much more than a high school diploma,” said Perdue, a former schoolteacher. She touts a “College Promise” program that would target children and their parents as young as fifth grade with the pledge of a debt-free college education.
In other words, Socialism. While North Carolinians are already overtaxed and the state is spending far more money than it should, Bev Perdue wants to irresponsibly add to that burden by passing the responsibility of one’s college education on to the taxpayer. A college education is not a right; it is a privilege for those that study hard and earn it. There is plenty of financial aid out there for anyone to afford to go and we’re talking about adults here, not children. Nobody paid my way through college. I did it on my own. Continuing to bury this state with Socialist mandates will negatively effect the state’s position as a leader for industry and jobs and start a complete 180 towards decline. This is pandering for votes by the worst kind from Bev Perdue.
Moore calls his program to make community college tuition free a wise investment of just $50 million annually, money that will come from North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement. He pledges to cut the dropout rate in half during his first term in part by reforming the public school curriculum to make it more useful in the real world.
“We’re still by and large teaching a liberal arts curriculum from 200 years ago,” he said. “I firmly believe a lot of our young people drop out of high school because they are bored.”
I’ve already hit on Moore’s position on this as well about a month ago. Who pays for the “free” education once the tobacco money is gone?
I do like Moore’s view on changing the public school curriculum, however. The western world in general seems to be stuck on this liberal arts education, most of which has no value in the real world. Kids spend 12 years of school and then generally the first two years of college learning stuff that they will hardly ever use once they get a job. I don’t know what Moore has in mind exactly, but high school kids should be trained in specific skills related to an industry of their choosing. That would prepare them better for the working world and provide the experience many employers desire above a college degree.
