Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, speaking at a White House briefing this morning, called on Congress to address the nation’s high school dropout crisis.

Moderating a panel at the briefing on “The Dropout Epidemic in the United States and Cross-Sector Solutions” hosted by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and America’s Promise Alliance, the governor spoke of the economic impact of the nation’s low graduation rate and how the federal government can and must play a role in education reform at the high school level.

“I want to thank the White House and America’s Promise for this important briefing,” said Wise, author of Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth and Our Nation, a book that Jossey-Bass will publish this week. “We must remember this crisis affects all of us—student, citizen, taxpayer. A dropout earns $260,000 less over his or her lifetime than a high school graduate, and $1 million less than a college graduate. If the students who dropped out of the Class of 2007 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefited from an additional $329 billion in income over their lifetimes. Ultimately, the best economic stimulus package for our country is a high school diploma.

He continued, “The good news is that with the leadership of the administration and key members of Congress, a new and much more significant federal role in addressing the dropout crisis is emerging. Some necessary federal pieces now under consideration on Capitol Hill include setting a college and work readiness goal for every student, holding schools accountable for graduating students; increasing efforts to assist states in developing comprehensive data systems; targeting federal funding to the lowest- performing high schools; building middle and high school literacy skills; and making the necessary investments in research, data, and innovation.”

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The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington-based policy, research, and advocacy organization that works to make every child a graduate, prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.

For more information about the Alliance for Excellent Education, please visit: http://www.all4ed.org.