Read & React

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Graduation rates


New York spends more per student than almost every other state, but has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country. Why do you think it’s so low in the state, and what can be done so that more young people earn a diploma?Â  Read story.

Categories: General
Gary Hahn

13 Responses

  1. jakester says:

    It’s so low because the state is one of the easiest states to obtain welfare. I’d bet if you took NYC out of the equation, the ranking would be much higher. Maybe have athletes, entertainers etc, that kids admire, go to schools, where at an early age the kids can be told the value of an education. Their parents don’t care and they grow up the same way, in a welfare cycle. The charter schools are practically handing out diplomas for just showing up. What do the kids do when they graduate from there, they haven’t learned squat !

  2. Laquanda says:

    Already schools are grading easier then they did even 10 years ago, kids who are on special education are getting a high school diplomas[ can not read!], other kids are pushed through to get rid of them- can we be even MORE lax?? A high school diploma means nothing today~ just like anyone can get into SCCC and HVCC- open admission- so what value is your degree??

  3. T. Wayne Lucas III says:

    Somebody go out to the beach where the free-loading NYSUT low-lifeâ€™s are hanging out and hand them today’s TU so we can get their side of it. Oh yea – it’s “Dubya’s” fault I’m sure. “Testing doesnâ€™t measure learning.” Yea, OK. Let’s not test airline pilots and brain surgeons either.

    Until we get rid of these free-loaders and hire PROFESSIONALS from industry things will never change.

    Back to the beach . . .

  4. katie smith says:

    A lot of that money is being spent on Special Education and teachers salaries. My cousins husband was offered early retirment at 55 because his salary was at the maximum. My sister who only taught for two years in her life was offered a teaching job at Albany High with a starting salary of 50K. Half the classes if not more are Special Ed students. A learning disabled student is a Special Needs student who requires Special Education. There is a long process thats involved in having a student identified as Special Needs. Psychologists – the works and that costs big money.

  5. Mary Sandy says:

    NYS graduation requirements are very stringent. I personally saw the drop-out rate increase from 1% to 10% in the year NYS first required higher standards. College-prep level math required for all? Not very realistic. Our high school students have schedules jam-packed to fit in everything. I still see former students who graduated in the early ’70′s who have managed to have very successful lives without having earned a Regents diploma. Not all students have the ability to be successful at an across-the-board high academic level. Students need to experience success to gain the confidence to meet the next challenge. Our drop-outs do not fit into a “one size fits all” philosophy.

  6. civil savant says:

    its because NYS’s way of dealing w/ problems is to just throw money at it and hope it goes away.

    All they care about about is how they as beaucrocrats look to the public….its all about appearances and not about resolution.

  7. onetallone says:

    What the heck are they doing with all that money? I don’t see them doing much. In the high schools I see too many useless classes that the teenagers don’t need. They need to work on the basics more and less on the fluff. I had to pay bucks to hire tutors for my boys or they would have learned zip. Teachers are well paid babysitters.

  8. SmokinJoe says:

    Welfare??? â€¦. The hate just pours out of his ears!!! â€¦. BREAKING NEWS: Itâ€™s 2007, the welfare queen never existed and Raygun is DEAD already!!!

    Years of unfunded mandates and lazy parents are to blame!!! Kids need homes that provide structure and offer assistance so they can go to school prepared. And teachers being forced to teach exclusively to stale, uninteresting test materials due to anti-education republicans at the expense of a more rounded program that could include coursework that might engage and stimulate students is also an epidemic that is spreading out of control!!!

  9. iknowtruthismine says:

    Recently, on a Jay Leno “Jaywalking” piece, a man was asked some very basic 4th of July questions and couldn’t answer one correctly. His wife was called over and she did just as poorly. Then they dragged the son over and he didn’t have a clue either. Finally they dragged the grandfather over, an old Black man who attended the worst of what we offered as a school forty years ago, and he answered every question correctly. Our educational system has become a joke, everywhere.

  10. TiredOfNY says:

    How about a teacher’s union that has become way too powerful, created ridiculously high wages and unreasonable benefits, a lack of accountability for teachers — ever try firing a teacher in New York State — and homeowners not able to afford living here due to school taxes. Have you looked at your school district’s budget lately? Check out how much is left for our kids’ education after teacher wages, salaries and benefits.

  11. paul says:

    Tired ofNY
    A teachers union that is to powerful. NO WAY! Hhigh wages, how much do you think a teacher makes anyway? You think 60k a year is outrageous? Whatâ€™s the address of the cardboard box you live in. How much do you make? Do you have a masterâ€™s degree? They do, they paid for it, and have to attempt to educate your unruly children that you ignore at home. GET A GRIP! School taxes are high, one of the reasons for that is administrators wages and benefits. At Ravena Coeymans Selkirk the Superintendent makes $2400.00 or more a week, as published last week. Were talking about RCS not some fancy private school. NO TEACHER I know make that much! Now thatâ€™s outrageous! Sir or Madam put the blame where it belongs. Teacherâ€™s wages and benefits are certainly not the problem. We pay our teachers far less then foreign nations do. If our children deserve a superior education we need to pay professional wages to people dedicated to their profession. Why do you hate unions so much?

  12. katie smith says:

    Teachers have become nothing but glorified babysiters. Now they are talking about adding Junior Kindergarten. JK is nothing but a daycare for working parents.

  13. johnQ says:

    When I attended high school students could choose whether or not they wanted to study and graduate or to leave school and get a job. All who left school for employment became productive, well adjusted citizens, and some returned to school upon finding that their jobs were not as rewarding as initially thought. The individual must want to study, not be spoon-fed. One cannot help but notice that many of these student have little, if any, difficulty learning the dress and jargon of prisioners, intricate dancing rituals, indistinguishable verse of current songs, to mention just a few examples. The system should focus a bit more on the students who are gifted and those who truly desire to learn.