Napolitano suggests higher dropout age, earlier algebra

The governor on Tuesday pointed out that current law lets a student drop out on turning 16. In fact, she noted, youngsters in Arizona actually can leave school at age 14 if they have a job and parental consent.

"It seems to me that in this day and age, when we're asking and need our students to know more, that that dropout age may be anachronistic, no longer fitting with the needs of our students and with our state," she told members of a special state commission studying education.

And Napolitano said it runs counter to federal education policy -- specifically the No Child Left Behind act.

Napolitano said youngsters should not be allowed to leave school until they turn 18. And she asked members of P-20 Council -- named because it covers education from preschool through college -- to suggest ways of providing support to keeping students in school and have a "rational approach to enforcement" of mandatory attendance laws.

The governor also told council members she wants recommendations from them to ensure that all students have access to algebra courses by the eighth grade. She said students who enter high school without that as a basis are not prepared for advanced math and science courses.

"Eighth grade algebra is the 'canary in the coal mine' as to whether a student is really getting prepared for high school -- and beyond," Napolitano said.

Napolitano conceded that as governor she doesn't use algebra all that much. "But I certainly use the mental rigor that algebra begins to impart," she said, calling it "mental calisthenics."

State School Superintendent Tom Horne said altering the dropout age is not the answer.

"My solution to the dropout problem is to persuade kids that they should be in school with things like outside mentoring, peer counseling, flexible hours and career technical education," he said.

"But if you force kids who don't want to be there to be there," Horne explained. "They can be disruptive and I think that's something we need to be careful about."

Napolitano countered there are other options.

"You can develop alternative curricula, you can really try to identify students earlier that are at risk of dropping out," she said. But she said without a change "a kid who's not particularly engaged in school and doesn't really want to do very much kind of knows that at 16 he can drop out."

Various bills to increase the age of mandatory attendance have failed in prior years.

Lawmakers considered an alternative plan eight years ago: Deny driver licenses to high school dropouts. But that failed to generate much support.

How big a problem dropout are depends on whose figures are considered.

The state Department of Education pegs the dropout rate for 2004-05 school year at 6.9 percent. That is computed based on the 16,694 youngsters enrolled in high school during the year who did not complete the year or return next year, and did not transfer, graduate or die.

By contrast, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which publishes data about children each year, pegged the state's dropout rate at 11 percent, the 45th worst in the country.

That report, however, uses Census Bureau data to determine youngsters age 16 through 18 who are not enrolled in high school and have not graduated. The Department of Education, in its own position statement, says that overstates the figures in a state like Arizona, with its high percentage of new residents, as it does not determine if the youngsters dropped out of an Arizona school or came here after leaving school in their own state or country.

Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said it is the responsibility of parents -- and not the state -- to ensure that their youngsters get a high school diploma.

She noted that one Arizona tribe has come up with a unusual way to drive that message home to parents: Their share of payments from casino profits and other tribal revenues is cut if their youngsters leave school before graduating.