Illustration by Cody Angell

Itās difficult for most college students to imagine what it would have been like not to have graduated high school, but itās becoming a reality for a growing number of Arizona teenagers. A study released July 22 by the Arizona Department of Education showed that nearly 22 percent of Arizona high school students dropped out before earning a diploma and did not earn General Education Development certificates. Thatās far above the national average of 4.8 percent provided by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Not surprisingly, Education Weekās analysis of per-pupil education spending showed Arizona far behind the national average. Arizona ranked 48th in the nation, under-spent only by Mississippi and Utah.

Equally disturbing are the dropout rates for non-whites in Arizona. Nearly 25 percent of blacks and more than 32 percent of Hispanics in Arizonaās class of 2000 became dropouts. Only 55.9 percent of Native Americans graduated in four years. Minorities in Arizona are not likely to move up economically unless they graduate high school in larger numbers.

Dropout rates broken down by district provide chilling evidence of the ever-present inequities between the rich and poor districts in our state. While Scottsdale Unified District had a graduation rate of almost 89 percent, students who graduated from Chinle Unified District on the Navajo Reservation defied the odds. Less than half ÷ only 46 percent to be exact ÷ of students in the Chinle District graduated in four years.

These inequities are evident in Tucson districts as well. Catalina Foothills Unified District, a district with some of the wealthiest families in the state, graduated an impressive 90.8 percent of its students in four years. The sun doesnāt shine for as many students in the less fortunate Sunnyside Unified District, where only 55 percent graduated in four years.

State School Superintendent Jaime Molera declared the dropout rates a "crisis in our state" and called for "all Arizonans to wake up to it."

This information is evidence of a crisis in our state, but this crisis did not come over night. Arizonans waking up to the issue is a good start, but any solution that could hope to adequately address the problem will require much more.

A multitude of issues factor into our stateās high dropout rate. Some parents are not supportive of education, some students need to work at an early age to add to the family income, some students arenāt native speakers of English, some are developmentally challenged; the list goes on and on.

A great deal of elected Republicans in our state seem to think itās not only appropriate, but possible for the government to influence individual family values ÷ all the while allowing our schools to crumble, mind you ÷ in order to improve education. Back on earth, there is very little the state as a whole can do to cause individual families to be more education-oriented. Nonetheless, we can improve our schools and work to bring up the poor districts from the bottom. Focusing attention on schools wonāt solve the problem in its entirety, but a disparity in education funding is the biggest difference between Arizona and states with lower dropout rates.

Programs to lure master teachers to underprivileged districts, funding programs to bring the less fortunate schools up to date, and social programs to prevent students from disadvantaged backgrounds from having to leave school for work could all have an impact.

Arizona needs true leadership if anything is to be done about the dire condition of Arizonaās education system. These latest numbers are hardly newsworthy, as reports of Arizonaās failing schools seem to surface about once a month. The leadership Arizona needs has not come from Gov. Jane Dee Hull, who promised to make education a priority when she was first appointed governor in 1997. Such leadership will not come from Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon either, who has already pledged to lower taxes. Only if Arizona elects a new slate of leaders, a great deal of them Democrats, will serious changes come to our education system.

I can only hope that our dropout rate, along with a superfluity of other disturbing statistics will remain in the minds of Arizonans this November when it comes time to elect state leaders.