Arkansawyer

Here’s the story as told by power:

Dropping out of high school costs the students future income and society the taxes from that income, but efforts to keep kids in school show limited results.

And on:

“They simply don’t have the skills to compete in the 21st century,” Ritter said.

Gone are the days when a person could graduate from high school, find a job and do reasonably well in life, he continued.

“The manufacturing jobs that paid well and offered a man a job for life don’t exist anymore. They have been outsourced,” Ritter said.

(Oh, the irony–Ritter’s job is financed by the Walton Foundation.)

And on:

“We aren’t going to have economic growth without a more educated workforce. We have to have more kids graduate from high school and college if we are going to compete economically,” said Linda Auman, chief academic officer for the Fayetteville School District.

Aren’t you glad the chief academic officer is thinking about the workforce, and not silly stuff like the value of education to one’s life as a citizen?

And here’s the story as told by the object of power:

“I want to be a teacher because I believe if people had cared when I was growing up, I wouldn’t have been in all the trouble I was in,” Foster said.

“There’s going to be some kid out there that’s just like me and needs some guidance. If no one is there to lend a helping hand or just listen, we are going to have more children fall through the cracks. I want to take what I learned the hard way and help someone else before they fall through the cracks like I did.”

If you read her story, you see she didn’t fall, but was pushed:

She dropped out in eighth grade after an argument with her principal. Foster recalls the principal told her she was a troublemaker and would never amount to anything.

She said her parents threw her out of the house, and she ended up living on the streets. She supported herself by waiting tables and any other job she could find.

Of course, there’s always an ignorant someone to carp in the comments:

Good story but don’t claim to “fall through the cracks” when you are a drop out. Congrats on having the guts to better yourself and best of luck!

Someone needs a remedial reading course, or maybe a song.