Experts debate over dropout academies

Dropout academies had a 29.9 graduation rate during the 2006-07 school year.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Two years ago, 16-year-old Jonathan Martinez was a defiant kid from New York City who felt disconnected from his new peers at Columbus’ West High School. He was expecting a son, and he quickly dropped out of school.

Fast-forward to Friday, when Martinez, now 18, earned his diploma from Life Skills Center of Columbus Southeast, a privately run academy for high school dropouts.

“Honestly, my first thought was: Another high school, just another chance to get kicked out of somewhere,” said Martinez. “But I saw the way they treat the kids, they don’t just talk to them to find out about school but just to find out what’s going on, to get to know them on a personal level.”

Martinez is holding down a job at Toys R Us, and is saving money to buy a house.

The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools is seeking to defend charter schools like Life Skills, which suffer from lackluster graduation rates and poor marks for performance.

Dropout academies had a 29.9 graduation rate during the 2006-07 school year, compared to 91.4 at public schools and 32.3 percent at charter schools.

Schools run by White Hat had a graduation rate of 26.6 percent.

The alliance recently conducted a soon-to-be-released study that shows how much Ohio taxpayers save every time a high school dropout is avoided. An early copy of the study was provided to The Associated Press.

The analysis found that a person with a high school education and no college earns an average of $470,000 more over their lifetime than one who drops out of high school. It estimated that Ohio experiences $7.6 billion in lost wages each year because the 749,879 high school dropouts don’t have diplomas.

“This report does a good job of showing what a critical role these dropout programs play in the lives of these students and what a practical role they play as educational institutions to the state’s economy,” said William Sims, the alliance’s president and CEO.

Among key findings of the study, conducted by the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center for Education & Research:

UHigh school graduates pay, on average, $564 a year more in taxes than high school dropouts;

UHigh school dropouts receive, on average, $2,240 more than graduates each year in government assistance payments for housing, food stamps, health care, unemployment and disability compensation;

UHigh school dropouts spend more time in prison and jail, costing the state $1,586 more per individual than high school graduates.

Past Republican administrations in Ohio used charter schools and private school vouchers to offer families a way out of troubled public schools. But Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland has been trying to scale back such programs to focus taxpayer money on more traditional public schools.

Strickland proposed stiff new regulations for charter schools during his last State of the State address, but was rebuffed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. Democrats took control of the Ohio House in the 2008 elections.

The Ohio Federation of Teachers asked the Internal Revenue Service last year to investigate White Hat Management, the company that manages Life Skills and other charter schools, for allegedly violating the terms of the tax-free status assigned to some of its schools.

Andy Jewell, a research consultant to the Ohio Education Association, which represents unionized public school teachers, says there is no doubt that people are better off with a high school diploma than without one.

“The question is whether we’re getting a valuable return on investment,” he said. “The thing that makes it hard to answer is one could say that if one kid makes it through, it’s worth it. I think a lot of people may disagree with that fact.”

The charter alliance’s study found that, after subtracting the cost of schools, Ohioans can realize a return of $11.62 for every $1 invested in a high school graduate.

Jewell says it costs Ohio taxpayers $28,500 for every student that graduates from a White Hat school, compared to $17,500 at one of Ohio’s Big 8 urban districts.

“My personal view is that we have a very poorly implemented, conceived and operated charter school program, and I don’t think these dropout recovery charter schools are an exception,” he said. “The argument is we have these kids who would otherwise be on the street, which may or may not be true.”

While extremely positive about his Life Skills experience, Martinez doubts he would have wound up on the street. He said education has always been a priority for him.

Andrew Pasquinilli, an administrator at Life Skills, said the flexibility and individual attention provided by his school has become even more valuable in a struggling economy.

“These are the same students that I’m sure people were telling before that they wouldn’t be successful,” he said. “It’s one thing to have people tell you that, it’s another thing to experience the doors shutting on you yourself.”