This Week's News: 18 June, 2006

Education

Education Department Hides Dropout Crisis
Pasadena Star-News, CA – June 11, 2006
…In the meantime, though, the California Department of Education has backslided. In 2002, it reverted to reporting phony dropout rates. Three years ago, it stopped issuing the yearly spring dropout press release altogether. We are getting dead silence from a bureaucracy that doesn't want to talk about our greatest crisis.

New York State's Dual Crises: Low Graduation Rates and Rising School Taxes
Public Policy and Education Fund Report – May 18, 2006
New York State’s school funding system faces dual crises. First is the failure to provide children with a “meaningful high school education,” also called a “sound, basic education,” as mandated by the state constitution and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (“CFE II”) decision. The clearest consequence of this failure is that over one-third of high school students today do not graduate in four years.


Teen Pregnancy

Teen Birth Rate Hurts Economy
The Business Journal, WI – June 12, 2006
Almost 17 percent of births in Milwaukee are to teen mothers. That fact affects businesses' ability to find qualified skilled workers, to clamp down on rising health care costs and to attract new businesses to metropolitan Milwaukee. The city recorded 1,869 births to mothers under 20 in 2004 -- nearly double the state's teen birth rate of 8.7 percent. The national average is 12.1 percent. Nationally, each teen pregnancy costs taxpayers an average of at least $79,320 in long-term costs.


Foster care

College Youth Find Home as 'Foster Care Scholars'
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ – June 16, 2006
Not all college students have a room to return to when school lets out. Some do not even have a place to call home. But this summer, 14 young adults who may have otherwise been borrowing couches, sleeping in their cars or staying in shelters instead have their own beds.


Juvenile Justice

CMSU Workshop Examines Juvenile Justice Opportunities
digitalBURG.com, MO – June 14, 2006
The delivery of justice services to Missouri's children and their families is the focus of "Putting the Pieces Together: Connecting Evidence-based Practices and Collaborative Community Initiatives," a juvenile justice conference planned for Wednesday, June 28, in the Elliott Union ballroom at Central Missouri State University.

To Fight Next Wave of Crime, Get to Young People Before Gangs Do
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN – June 16, 2006
... According to reports from the Department of Juvenile Justice, more than half of robberies reported by adult victims were committed by juvenile offenders. ...

Schools Use New Tactics for Trouble Dropping 'Get-Tough' Approach Gets Results
New Haven Register, CT – June 11, 2006
…In an era of zero-tolerance policies, these administrators are rethinking what the policies should target. The zero tolerance now applies to breaking laws rather than breaking rules. They also have shed the "get tough" talk in favor of building relationships with their students and teaching them by talking out problems.