By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – School districts around New York State are hoping residents will vote Tuesday to retain adequate resources for schools. But Masten District Councilman Antoine Thompson said schools are losing more and more of the most valuable resource - students.
The closed Buffalo Traditional School served as the stark backdrop for the launch of Thompson's public education campaign.
He said nearly two thousand students have dropped out of Buffalo public schools in the last three years alone. He adds that, due to errors in reporting, the number is probably even higher.
"Two thousand young people dropping out of school in the twenty first century, to me, represents a crisis," said Thompson.
Thompson cited several reasons for the increased rate, including tougher state education standards, fewer vocational programs, poverty, and inadequate community response.
And he said this is not a problem that stops at the school door.
"Over sixty percent of the people who go into jail at the time of incarceration do not have a GED or high school diploma," said Thompson. "Once they go to jail though, if they get a GED or high school diploma, they are less likely to go back to jail."
Thompson saidd getting the courts to require diplomas or a GED would go a long way toward halting the trend and reducing urban crime.
According to Thompson, more than ten thousand African Americans in Buffalo don't have a high school diploma or GED. And he said that means many of them will end up breaking the law to make a living.
Sam Herbert is a retired lab technician who is back in school to become a teacher. He says mentors like himself could help show kids there's a better way.
"We have to become more child centered and we have to really develop a curriculum that is going to include increasing people receiving their GED," said Herbert."
Thompson said the city's twenty-five GED programs have trouble attracting enough students to stay open.
As chair of the education committee, the councilman saidd he will work to increase public awareness, as well as push the board of education to make the reforms needed to keep kids from leaving school in the first place.