Princeton Foundation for Peace & Learning, a global non-profit organization, is committed to serve the local communities while working on global issues. As a part of our commitment, Princeton Foundation members organized a community drive to enhance the awareness of social issues and raised school supplies for 100 students enrolled at the Nicholas S. Lacorte-Peterstown School No. 3, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The drive was led by Ms Kayla Babbit, a 11th grade student at the West Windsor Plainsboro North High School and a Young Ambassador at the Princeton Foundation. The drive was also supported by several other members of the Princeton Foundation. “I am so happy that I was able to work on this project through the Princeton Foundation and give back to students in NJ. I was originally inspired to start this because I have a family member who works in teaching and she was telling me how she had no supplies in her classroom and the students didn’t have enough money to pay for supplies, so she and her students were struggling. After months of coordinating and communicating with the people of Princeton Foundation and the Elizabeth School District, we were finally able to raise the supplies and give to the school” said Kayla.
This drive is a part of Princeton Foundation’s comprehensive vision to strengthen our public schooling system across the nation.
The US government spends almost 771 billion annually to fund K-12 public education with a goal to provide equal opportunity for all students, regardless of their social or economic backgrounds. However, equity in education is far from reality. In a national survey of 17,857 schools, there were several schools where more than a quarter of all students are unable to complete high school.
The school drop out has not only social but also major economic implications. Every student that drops out of high school is 63% more likely to be incarcerated. The challenges hardly end there, particularly among young dropouts. Among those between the ages of 18 and 24, dropouts were more than twice as likely as college graduates to live in poverty according to the Department of Education. Dropouts experienced a poverty rate of 30.8 percent, while those with at least a bachelor’s degree had a poverty rate of 13.5 percent (1,2).
Dropouts also experience unemployment rates at 12% or greater despite healthy economic conditions. Young women who give up on high school are nine times more likely to become young single mothers. Even if dropouts escape incarceration, avoid significant likelihood of chronic health issues, and are able to get actually get a job, their earning power is diminished to $20,241 annually – $10,000 lower than high school graduate and $36,000 lower than a person with a bachelors (1,2).
In the state of New Jersey, which ranks third in national public standards of education and first in terms of digital learning, the school graduation rates reflect the national trend and range from 70 – 94 percent. In Elizabeth school district, high school graduation rate is 83.5%. Of more than 28,000 overall students in the district, minority enrollment is 90% and 49.9% of students are economically disadvantaged. Even though 90.3% of teachers in the district are licensed, High school college readiness is merely 33.7% and math proficiency is 11% (3,4).
Since many parents cannot afford to place their children in private schools, it is critical to strengthen our public schooling system. Schools in impoverished areas and with a higher concentration of nonwhite students have higher school drop-out rates and lower proficiency in mathematics and reading. Although the NJ government invests more than a billion dollars per year in efforts to equalize school funding, merely increasing the fund allocation would not address the confounding factors of family structure, family stress (death, divorce, family moves), parent’s outlook, and the student’s overall sense of belonging with the school. These socio-economic challenges make it harder for the underprivileged students to succeed academically and professionally, perpetuating poverty even further.
School dropout problem is a complex one that cannot be solved by the Government alone. Increasing government funding is also not the remedy. We need a transformative, comprehensive, and data driven approach based on sound planning to develop novel educational policies that includes academic research, real-world evidence, and primary research involving all stakeholders to ensure its relevance and feasibility. Addressing the challenges that come with mitigating the American public education system will be an important endeavor to invest long-term in.
References
- The Lifetime Cost to Taxpayers of One Dropout is $292,000. Link
- By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School. Link
- US News and World Report 2023. Link
- Pathak, Ameyavikram. Public Private Partnership to improve Access to Public Education. Link
