Rep. Tim Probst has introduced a bill that would dedicate a whopping 1 percent of state basic school support — roughly $51 million annually — to high school dropout prevention.
His intent, the Vancouver Democrat says, is to highlight the cost society pays annually for each Washington student who fails to graduate from high school.
That societal cost comes to an average of $10,500 per student, according to a new analysis prepared by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The figure includes unpaid federal, state and local taxes ($7,035); the cost of government-subsidized health care ($1,995); the cost to the criminal justice system ($1,365); and the cost of welfare, food stamps and housing assistance ($105).
That’s why, under House Bill 2631, high schools and school districts would share $10,500 each time one of their at-risk students stays in school and graduates. Half the money would go to the student’s high school, the other half to the district.
The bill received its second hearing Tuesday in the House Education Committee.
Probst, who was named vice chairman of the Education Appropriations Committee this session, is realistic about the bill’s prospects. He knows the state has a $2.6 billion budget hole to plug and that the chances of passing a bill with such a hefty cost are nil.
But HB 2631 sends a message, he said: Nearly one in four high school students in Washington fails to graduate, and that affects the state budget and society as a whole.
“I ran that bill to highlight the cost to taxpayers and to our economy of continuing to ignore the dropout problem,” he said. “With the price tag on that bill, I don’t expect it’s going to pass. But I do expect that it will further highlight that the cost of continuing to have a 23 percent dropout rate is even higher. It will give momentum to some of the smaller dropout prevention bills that we are working on. Even I was surprised by just how expensive our dropout rate actually is to taxpayers and the economy.”
According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 5.6 percent of students on average drop out in each year of high school. For the class of 2008, just 72 percent of students earned a high school diploma in four years; 77 percent managed to graduate in five years.
Even though the bill is mainly an attention-grabber, Probst says the approach it takes — rewarding schools and school districts with cash for reducing their dropout rates — is worth serious consideration.
“If there is no decrease in the dropout rate, no payment would be made,” he said. “This is strictly payment after performance, strictly a market incentive to make the dropout rate go down. You don’t get any money for trying, only for achieving the goal.”
Jada Rupley, an assistant superintendent at Educational Service District 112 in Vancouver, testified for the bill in Olympia on Tuesday. She agrees with Probst’s approach — to a point.
“It’s a really good way to reward successful efforts on behalf of schools to be able to say, ‘Here’s money to let you continue your efforts.’ The problem is, they would be doing that if there were enough resources up front.”
School districts have fewer resources than in the past to invest in keeping troubled students on the path to graduation, Rupley said.
“These kids do have some kind of barrier to being successful,” she said. “It could be issues at home, it could be that they are far behind in their credits, it could be learning disabilities, it could be drug issues. A lot of things can happen to make kids get off-track.”
Under Probst’s bill, schools and school districts could spend the money on a range of programs, including graduation coaches, internships, tutoring, in-school suspension, outreach to parents, mentoring and counseling.
“Olympia shouldn’t mandate to local schools how they do their job if they get the job done,” Probst said.
Probst directs the Washington Workforce Association, a statewide program that links high school graduates with employment opportunities. He also serves on a state-level working group created by the 2007 Legislature to improve dropout rates. The program, called Building Bridges, provided grants to partnerships around the state.
In Clark County, it provided $175,000 annually for two years to a dropout prevention program administered by ESD and the Clark County Skills Center that seeks to help students earn both a diploma and certification in a vocational field. The grant, which expired last year, allowed enrollment at Bridges Academy to grow from 20 to 50 students. Ten students graduated in 2009, up from just one in 2008.
“We’ve seen a lot of success,” said coordinator Jill Neyenhouse. “The grant allowed us to become established in the county and work with school districts to let them know we’re here.
Probst wants to encourage programs such as Bridges Academy.
“We can’t have a competitive economy with a 23 percent dropout rate,” he said. “Kids aren’t going to have productive lives if they drop out.”
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
