Someday, he may make a living legally. Someday, he may get a high-school equivalency certificate. Neither will happen soon. It's not a gamble. God knows I'm doing wrong, but God understands.
Dropouts vary by race Every year, more and more kids quit school in Columbus.
The district's dropout rate has risen 10 percentage points since 1994, the year proficiency tests became a graduation requirement. If nothing changes, some 2,125 of this year's 5,275 ninth-graders will quit before graduating, including 1,200 blacks and 925 whites. While more blacks than whites give up on school, the dropout rate for whites actually is 4 points higher, at 45 percent. By contrast, Franklin County's suburban districts reported much lower dropout rates. Unlike Columbus', some suburban districts' dropout rates vary dramatically between blacks and whites.