Need

According to one major research study, it costs the average community $1.7 - $2.3 million for every high school dropout when factoring in the decreased personal income potential along with the well-documented links to increased druguse and associated crime. The human cost is even higher, with another study documenting that high school dropouts comprise nearly two- thirds of all state prison inmates in the U.S.

Unfortunately, many Colorado students, especially from minority communities, are choosing to drop out. According to the 2004 Harvard / Urban Institute Civil Rights Project study¹, “the graduation rates among African-American and Latino students in Denver are among the lowest in the nation, 38.6% and 30.5% respectively, versus 50.2% and 53.2% nationally. Annually, over 2,000 Denver high school students drop out of the Denver Public School system.

Our support systems can no longer shoulder the growing economic burden that these dropouts pose to the viability of our community. The American dream is brought to life with the freedom and choices enabled by a quality education. Wealthy and middle-class families have historically enjoyed educational options; they can afford to send their children to private schools or move to neighborhoods with the better public schools.

The poor have no such options; their only consistent choices have been to stay in their all-too-often failing neighborhood public schools or drop out. ACE was founded to provide low-income parents with the freedom of genuine educational choices and the power of financial scholarships to assure them that their children will get the chance to grow into successful and productive citizens.

The bottom line is that all children matter; each and every student deserves a quality education. Poor educational performance cripples not only individuals and their families; it also seriously weakens our state and country in the face of today's global economy.

In Colorado

Colorado has approximately 751,860 children in public schools with total spending per pupil averaging $5,795 per student. Despite efforts to improve Colorado’s standardized test results, too many students still fail to read and write at proficient levels. The State of Colorado has identified 87 Colorado public schools as lacking adequate yearly progress based on 2002-03 state assessments.²

Colorado ranks 26th overall out of the 50 states in the number of high school dropouts.³. This is the first time that our state has appeared in the lower half of the national rating. The percentage of Colorado teens that are high school dropouts rose from 10 percent to 14 percent, which is the opposite of the national trend (where it fell from 10 percent to 9 percent).⁴ Over 40% of Colorado’s high school students never make it to graduation, and our state ranks 48th for high school dropouts between ages 16 and 19.⁵

Among those who do remain in school, achievement on Colorado’s Standardized Assessments (CSAP) declines as students’ progress from elementary through high school. Colorado ranks last among all states in terms of the participation of low-income 18-24 year olds attending college. In 1999, 13.7% of low-income students attended college, compared to a national average during the same period of 24.5%.⁶ The statistics clearly demonstrate that our current public education system is not working well for many of the citizens of Colorado.

Denver Public Schools

Of the 87 Colorado public schools identified as lacking adequate yearly progress, 35 are in the Denver Public School (DPS) District. Denver currently has approximately 70,000 students enrolled, of which 44,054 qualify for Federal Free and Reduced Lunch (61%). Hispanics comprise 56% of the DPS population, with over 76% of this demographic group qualifying for the Free or Reduced Lunch. Sadly, 72.3 % of Hispanics in Denver are dropping out of school – the worst rate in America.

Denver’s African-American high school students are not doing much better, with a 65.1% drop out rate.⁷ These figures paint a very alarming picture, and drastic measures are needed to stem this educational exodus. Our failure to train and educate these youth will come back to haunt us.

There are also increasingly large numbers of low-income students on waiting lists for private schools in Colorado. Non-public schools have seen a 23% increase in attendance between 1997 and 2001, growing nearly four times faster than the overall student population (8%).⁸

1 "Losing our Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis"

2 Colorado Department of Education

3 See Education Quick Facts

4 KMGH Channel 7 News Report

5 The Colorado Children’s Campaign

6 Colorado Department of Education

7 Colorado Department of Education

8 Ceruli & Associates, “Educational Choice in Colorado”, p. 2