Mrs. Alma Powell, Chair, America's Promise Alliance - Keynote Address at the Alabama State Dropout Prevention Summit
Montgomery, AL - March 5, 2009
It is a pleasure to be with you today.
I want to thank the leaders of this state who made it a priority to be here today for this important work Governor Riley, Dr. Joseph Morton and Dr. Dan Williamson.
And special thanks to my old friend, Shelly Stewart, for being here and for all you do for young people.
It is a great pleasure to be home in Alabama. As a military wife, I have lived in many places around the country, but Alabama will always be home.
We are here today because we have urgent work to do.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than one-third of our young people in Alabama fail to graduate in four years. Some estimates place the dropout rate at more than 40%.
To put it another way: 25,700 more students in Alabama should have been in the class of 2007, but we lost them somewhere. Over 25,000!
Now, if 25,000 children went missing tomorrow — if even 25 went missing — we would mobilize every resource to find them. That is what we are gathered here to do — because, in a real sense, one-third of our graduating classes are being lost. Among our young people, one-third of the potential is being lost.
And that’s how we must think of them: Our young people. Our common responsibility.
Of course, graduation rates are not a problem just in Alabama. Across this nation, a student drops out every 26 seconds. Nearly half of all minority youth fail to graduate.
As my husband Colin has said, “This is not just a crisis. It is a catastrophe.”
And low graduation rates are not the only crisis. Of our children who do earn diplomas, not nearly enough have the skills to be ready for college and work.
Did you know that 8 in 10 of tomorrow’s jobs will require post-secondary education? Yet only four in 10 of our graduates continue to college after high school. And 30% of those students require remedial courses before they’re ready for even basic college-level work. Even getting them to college is not enough, because only half of those who start college will finish.
As President Obama said, “This is a prescription for economic decline.” When our children aren’t ready to succeed in college and work, our nation isn’t prepared for the future. Our ability to compete in a global economy is at risk. Our ability to attract good companies with good jobs is at risk.
In some ways I am preaching to the choir. Many of you already know the seriousness of this crisis and what is at stake. Now, we must help the whole congregation understand that we all have a stake in graduation rates and college readiness.
We need to let every voter know that, even though schools need more resources at a time when resources are squeezed, the cost of inaction is far higher.
We need to make sure every taxpayer understands that the 25,700 students in Alabama who failed to graduate in 2007 will lose more than $6.7 billion in earnings over their lifetimes.
They will cost Alabama $245 million more in healthcare costs than if they had earned a diploma.
If the graduation rate among males in Alabama — just males! — went up just 5%, the state would gain $125 million each year.
Could Alabama’s economy benefit from a boost like that?
You can understand why our new Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, says investing in our children’s education is the best long-term economic stimulus there is. He’s right!
In the long run, we will not revitalize our economy unless we equip our young people with the skills they need for success. That is the message we need to proclaim in every corner of America and every community in Alabama.
This is not just another meeting to talk about problems. Today is about solutions. It is not about where we are. It is about where we are going and how we get there.
Let me say it loud and clear: We are going to get there!
What does our destination look like?
In the Harlem Children’s Zone, you can see how beautifully children can bloom when a community nourishes them with the Five Promises. It began as a place where children at risk could be surrounded by an enriching environment of caring adults instead of the toxic culture of the street. The Zone started as one square block, then grew to 24, and now to 60. Soon it will be 100.
At P.S. 50 in New York City, a school that our Alliance honored two years ago, one principal’s leadership helped turn a failing school into an oasis — all because she engaged the community to bring in the resources that children need to thrive.
Go over to Tupelo, Mississippi, and you’ll see what is possible when a community comes together for our young people. Some years ago, the city’s leaders made education a top priority. They set up public-private partnerships to invest in schools. They took the attitude that “We’re all in this together.”
Today, 98% of Tupelo’s children attend public schools, which earn national awards for excellence. Graduation rates are among the highest in the state and 18 points higher than the national average.
Tupelo has about 40,000 people. But on weekdays it grows to 100,000 — because so many come from surrounding areas to work there. They joke that if Elvis had grown up in Tupelo now, he’d have never left.
Like Arne Duncan says, there’s no better economic stimulus than education.
But you don’t have to go to Mississippi to see what a community can do. Go to Sylacauga — which has earned a spot for three straight years on our list of “100 Best Communities for Young People.” Some of you have already heard this morning from Dr. Jane Cobia and Margaret Morton.
What is happening in Sylacauga is inspiring. Thanks to innovative collaborations between schools, churches, businesses and the local hospital, the BRIDGES program in Sylacauga offers after-school programs where children can receive tutoring, see wellness specialists, enjoy cultural activities and learn life skills.
The good news today is that the dropout crisis is reversible. We have seen what success looks like. It takes effective teachers. It takes academic rigor.
It takes involvement by every sector — including nonprofits, business and the faith community, as in Sylacauga.
Most of all, it takes what we call the Five Promises… developmental nutrients that all children need: caring adults… safe places… a healthy start… effective education… and opportunities to help others through service.
There’s no mystery about these. When children experience at least four of the Five Promises, they are twice as likely to earn A’s in school and avoid violence. They are more likely to succeed.
But it all starts with a commitment in the community, to the community.
Reversing the dropout crisis is not a matter of learning the means. It is a matter of summoning the will. It starts with people who care enough to take action.
Your presence here today affirms that Alabama is summoning the will.
Alabama is also taking the lead in an important way today. This year, America’s Promise Alliance has commissioned Gallup to conduct student polls in schools across the country. It will measure the most reliable predictors of student engagement and success — and for the first time, students themselves will have an important voice.
You will be able to look at data from the online survey not just in the aggregate but all the way down to the individual school level. It will be a powerful tool to pinpoint needs and guide the work of schools and communities.
I’m very pleased to announce that Alabama has agreed to be the first state to participate in this poll. I’d like to recognize those of you from the Alabama Department of Education for your leadership in making this possible.
The Gallup survey is just one of the ways our Alliance is mobilizing the country to make our young people an urgent priority. We represent 270 partner organizations from every sector. We couldn’t be more diverse. What unites us is a recognition that the well-being of our young people is our common concern.
In a number of ways, we are working to ensure that our young people experience the Five Promises in their lives. We know that bringing more Promises to more young people gets at the root of the dropout crisis.
Across America, we are working to create community partnerships with schools as hubs for getting disadvantaged young people the supports they need.
We’re seeing that all children eligible for public health insurance programs like CHIP are enrolled.
Together, we are working so that all children during the pivotal middle-school years receive opportunities for service learning and career exploration that can make the difference in their staying in school.
Together, we are working in an unprecedented way to integrate resources and efforts for maximum impact in 12 cities and four “Promise Zones” where dropout rates are high and the needs are great.
The other night, President Obama spoke a profound truth: If you drop out, you’re not just quitting on yourself down. You’re quitting on your country.
We would take that one step further. If we turn a blind eye when children drop out, we too are letting our country down. That’s why we’re sponsoring more than 100 dropout summits like this one, in every state and over 50 cities.
As I mentioned before, these summits aren’t just meetings. They’re the leading edge of movements. They are places where we plan and begin to act.
We’re already seeing results. I was in Mississippi for the first summit. Now, every school district in the state is developing a concrete plan for improving its graduation rates. A summit in Detroit led to an action plan for turning around 30 underperforming high schools and a $10 million education fund.
If you’re interested in conducting your own local dropout initiative — and I urge you to do so — we’ve just made available a wonderful resource called GradNation on the America’s Promise website. It gives you a step-by-step roadmap for the work that will raise graduation rates, and you can learn more in the information kits you received this morning.
You’ve heard a lot of statistics today. It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that behind every statistic is a child. Whenever a child fails to graduate… whenever a child is written off as too unruly or too difficult to teach, it is not simply a statistic. It is a tragedy.
I think of the lesson of Marva Collins, who grew up in Atmore, Alabama. She opened her own school in the inner city of Chicago, where she took in “problem children”… children with learning disabilities… children that others had written off. By the end of the first year, every child scored at least five grade levels higher. Her students went on to some of our finest universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford. They became physicians, lawyers and engineers.
“There is a brilliant child locked inside every student,” she once said. “When our students fail, we have failed.”
Let us leave here today with the determination to leave no child in Alabama behind. Let us leave determined to persevere — because as Marva Collins taught, “Determination and perseverance move the world.”
This summit is not an end, but a beginning. It is where Alabama draws the line on dropouts and says: “Enough! We are going to turn this around!”
Some say this task is too large… that it cannot be done. But we know from our own history that this is not true.
Here in Montgomery, one woman said “Enough!” When she refused to give up her seat on the bus, she electrified a movement that changed America. The movement was already in progress, but her stand inspired countless others to join.
Your leadership today, and in the days to come, will give new energy to this movement. It is the beginning of a Promise kept.
Today, we have an uncommon opportunity to unite this state in common purpose. There’s a new spirit across this country. Wherever I go, I find Americans are looking for opportunities to serve. They are ready to help and waiting to be called.
If you call today, they will answer. If you lead, they are ready to join the effort. So let the call go out across this great state: The time has come to secure the futures of Alabama’s children. Our children. And our future.
Thank you.