Giant steps needed to deal with drop out problem

"Simon Says" was a game kids played and enjoyed in the past. "Simon" gave directions to take "baby steps" or "giant steps" to the players.

It's time for Greene County to take some "giant steps" to deal with the county-wide high school dropout issue. Bloomfield High School has worked diligently to improve its rate. Recently, it reported an 80 percent rate of graduation. The school should absolutely celebrate these numbers.

Overall, losing 20 to 30 plus kids each year from high school graduation classes is not a celebratory event. Losing even one student could result in lifetime costs to support that person. This support falls to the taxpayers of Greene County.

The Monroe County Foundation announced a plan conceived to address the drop out problem. The county-wide plan is titled, "The Birth-to-Five Opportunity: Preparing Our Children for Success in School and Life."

According to the Bloomington Herald-Times, "The community partnership will be focused on birth-to-five years-old in order to increase success in school, graduation rates, work force readiness, job productivity, and community engagement; and decrease crime rates, teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, job training costs, special education costs, and grade repetition. Such goals could be attained by encouraging parents of young children to use everyday experiences to enhance learning; displaying and distributing informational materials; providing educational tools for parenting and caregivers; and sponsoring parent support workshops."

Locally, teachers, counselors, administration, and school boards have also worked tirelessly to improve dropout rates. Large amounts of money have been funneled into county schools to eliminate the problem. There has been some improvement. But these interventions are being offered much too late.

The Greene County Foundation could be the most powerful instrument to lead this county in its own educational preparedness program. It will take a county-wide effort, tremendous support, and total commitment to accomplish the goal of lowering the county dropout rate. Drop outs cost the state millions of dollars. It is time for "giant steps" to be taken.

Tawni is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. She can be reached by e-mail at tawniprudhomme@gmail.com .