ORANGE COUNTY VOICES EDUCATION : The High-School Dropout Crisis Is Everybody’s Problem : Schools: The tax system, Social Security and the economic outlook depend on the training attained by today’s youths.

As principal at Westminster High School, I am frequently asked, “Why, as educators, do we need to focus on students with a high-risk profile for dropping out? Why don’t we concentrate on the students who want to learn and ignore the others?” The answers to these questions deal with issues of social equity and economics.

The percentage of dropouts in California has remained fairly consistent during the past 20 years at approximately 30%. For the past three decades, the educational reform movement has concentrated on a variety of issues. In the ‘60s, it was motivated primarily by civil rights concerns. In the ‘70s, educational equity was a driving force. In this last decade, economic pressures and changing demographics in California have made the dropout problem more pressing for us individually, locally and nationally.

During the past 20 years, the labor market has been decreasingly able to absorb large numbers of unskilled workers. Increasingly, these unskilled jobs have gone to workers in foreign countries that compete internationally by paying lower wages. In today’s job market, the lack of a high school diploma is tantamount to a denial of employment, except in the most unskilled positions.

Teens represent 18% of the unemployed but receive fewer than 1% of the jobs, according to a 1986 U.S. Department of Labor Statistics study. These unemployed youths become burdens upon society in a number of ways, including increased taxes to support welfare and unemployment programs ($3 billion annually), crime prevention ($3 billion annually), lost tax revenues ($71 billion annually) and lost school revenues calculated by average daily attendance ($1.1 billion annually). And these costs continue to escalate.

These same youths are also less likely to move up the socioeconomic ladder.

The economic effect of dropouts also is influenced by the growing number of retirees. Compared to current figures, by the year 2000, there will be 200% more requests for retirement benefits. In 1950, 17 workers supported one retiree. In 1995, there will be three available workers to support one retiree.

Our Social Security system, retirement plans and the economic outlook depend upon the level of education attained by our youths today and in the future.

The configuration of the family has shifted from a nuclear family to single-parent households, generally headed by women. Early teen pregnancies and young teen mothers contribute to the dropout problem. This cycle of teen mothers with limited education contributes to the feminization of poverty and the increased costs of social programs to support these women and their families.

The United States’ share of the world trade market has in the last 25 years declined from 20% to 10%. If our world trade deficit is coupled with a 30% unskilled labor pool, the result is an economic threat to the business world. Business and industry depend equally on their ability to attract and retain a trained labor force and their ability to manufacture and sell goods.

Dropout prevention is no longer a social issue or a philanthropic cause. We are learning today that dropout prevention expenditures and motivational strategies are investments in the future.

The social and economic well-being of the nation are becoming increasingly dependent on the success educational institutions have in improving the academic achievement levels and retention of pupils within our educational institutions. This is a particularly challenging accomplishment with students of low socioeconomic status and those from ethnically, culturally and diverse language backgrounds who will come to represent a greater percentage of the California school population. Currently, more than 50% of the K-6 California school-age population is from minority groups. Whether one assigns the responsibility to the individual who drops out, to his environment or to the school he leaves, the fact remains that dropping out affects all of us socially and economically. The dropout problem crosses sexual, intellectual, personal, behavioral, socioeconomic, geographic, ethnic and language barriers.

The problem is difficult to resolve. Parents, community members and business leaders must collaborate with school decision-makers to provide a supportive environment that enhances each student’s chance for success in school. At Westminster High, varied approaches are being explored to discover the practices that maximize the potential of every student.