Should 16-year-olds have the right to drop out of school?

[Blue3]

This is something I would have opposed a few years ago... but now, after working in education for 3 years (including in high schools for a year), I'm more torn.

There are definitely some kids who don't want to be there, who can't be convinced, and who just disturb the class and the education of others. And there are some in **** schools who are better off completing their education with a GED unfortunately. But this should be the exception, not the norm, and definitely not encouraged.

[Blue3]

Well, the counter is the "disconnected youth rate."

That's the percentage of people aged 16-24 who have no job, no school, no internship/apprenticeship, etc. They're just disconnected. And being disconnected at that age doesn't just lead to higher rates of crime, it also makes it less likely for those people to ever get a job in the future.

The problem is, there's not enough opportunities for all those students, or they don't have the skills for all the openings.

The disconnected youth rate is 10-20% in my hometown, and that's not that bad compared to other areas where it can be much, much, higher.



On the other hand, forcing kids to stay in school who are disruptive or put in no effort is not helpful.

My boss in a former job wanted us to make sure this student was able to graduate... and he couldn't do borrowing in subtraction in most cases, and had trouble multiplying beyond the 4's table. In 11th grade. But schools need to show they have a high graduation rate. What we need to do is hold more kids back and fight the stigma of it, even if it means hiring more teachers and opening more schools which will cost more money. When 2% of 12th grades are considered proficient in math according to state standardized testing (which is thankfully being scrapped here), there's a problem. Yes, a problem with the test too, but come on, there's a problem with the education system too.