FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 3, 2010NEW VIDEO: Dropouts and distractions
School’s out, how many graduated? Perry doesn’t know.
HOUSTON — As students across Texas leave school for the summer, Rick Perry, in typical career politician fashion, still will not give a straight answer to the question of what’s happening to Texas students. Today, Bill White released a video highlighting Rick Perry’s ongoing failure to account for the 3 in 10 Texas high school students who do not graduate from high school or get a GED within four years. "Dropouts and distractions" can be found online at http://www.billwhitefortexas.com/dropouts/.
"Rick Perry is using a false dropout rate because it’s more convenient for his political career, and that’s what matters to him," said Katy Bacon, campaign spokesperson. "If you don’t even bother to start with facts, you can’t find a solution. Rick Perry has had 10 years to work on the dropout rate, and he’s failed."
The video comes on the heels of a new report showing the state doesn’t know what’s happening to 27% of students who are not graduating on time, and the rate is even higher, 34%, for black and Hispanic students. Previous findings show 3 in 10 students are not graduating or getting a GED within four years.
The economic effects of students dropping out are significant. Each class of dropouts is estimated to cost Texas and its economy billions of dollars. Over the course of a lifetime, a person who does not complete high school can expect to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a person with a high school diploma.
Perry attempted to address the issue with WBAP’s Mark Davis, saying of the dropout rate, "It’s 10 percent. It ain’t 30 percent." Bill White has challenged Perry to account for how many of the remaining 20 percent who aren’t graduating in four years actually ever graduate.
Two months later, Rick Perry has yet to give Texans the answers they deserve.White has proposed several measures to combat the high dropout rate, including creating multiple pathways to high school graduation, working with local employers to create job banks for students who must work, and making class hours more flexible.
Bill White and his wife Andrea helped start Expectation Graduation, a program designed to cut high school dropout rates. White helped organize an annual "Reach Out to Dropouts" walk, bringing together hundreds of community volunteers and educators to knock on doors of the houses of young people who did not return to high school for the fall semester. The program, initiated with eight high schools in HISD five years ago, was expanded to 24 school districts in the Houston area. To date the efforts have brought back over 8,800 high school students in the Houston area. Similar programs have been initiated in Dallas, Forth Worth, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and El Paso.
Contact:
Katy Bacon
press@billwhitefortexas.com
713.613.5326Script, "Dropouts and distractions"
Onscreen, line drawing animation of Rick Perry at a press conference responding to questions
RP: They try to tear down the state of Texas. They say our dropout rate is 30% – It ain’t. It’s more like … like 10%.
VO/Reporter: But experts say it’s double that …
RP: Pssht … It ain’t.
VO/Reporter: Or even more …
RP: I’m stayin’ …
VO/Reporter: … hundreds of thousands of Texas kids don’t stay in school and your solution is that you stay as governor?
RP: I’m stayin’. You got it.
VO/Reporter: That’s no solution …
RP: Hey, look, y’all seen my new car?
(Onscreen: Shiny new NASCAR car speeds across the screen)
RP: I’m stayin’
(Visual: Outline of "Press Conference Perry" appears on a chalkboard with the question "What happens to 3 in 10 kids?" written across the board)
VO: "Rick Perry doesn’t know whether more than a million young Texans ever graduated.
(Visual: text changes to "tens of thousands drop out every year"
Bill White knows that our economic future depends on giving all Texans the skills they need to compete for good jobs.
(Visual: Bill White appears in front of the chalk board. Text changes to "Bill White for Governor"
He’s led thousands of Texans in bringing dropouts back …
(Visual: text changes to "Perry doesn’t know what’s happened to 1.1 million kids"
and, as governor, he’ll work hard to keep young Texans from slipping through the cracks.
(Visual: photograph of Bill White talking to a student during a Reach Out to Dropout Walk)
Rick Perry works for his re-election.
(Visual: the chalkboard re-emerges with Rick Perry behind a podium with a sign reading "The Re-Election Bidness"
Bill White will work for the future of Texas. Bill White, a governor for Texas’ future.
