Georgia's Graduation Rates

Good afternoon, this post is a bit off the usual topics I write about, but I was disappointed in the story on Georgia's graduation rates appearing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today. Check out the full story here. The graduation rate for Georgia has been reset at 67.4 percent under a new formula.

While I don't have any children, I do keep an eye on the education system having graduated from high school in Georgia. I know it's a whole different experience in the schools these days from learning the curriculum to the unfortunate bullying. Let's encourage more reading & studying and less time playing video games.

Just yesterday, I stopped by a local store and often chat with the friendly cashier. Her son was in the store a few weeks ago and so I asked if he was in high school. She said "no he dropped out." I don't know if she saw the puzzled look on my face and I just had to ask why. Apparently her son has failed 5 times the graduation equivalency exam students have to take for graduating. He became discouraged. I didn't want to ask, but was thinking what are his plans now.

In this tough job market for people with a high school and college education, simply dropping out just doubled the chance of that job application ending up at the bottom of the pile. Graduation is sweet indeed!