But by the message, not the messenger. Journal staff writer James Salzer reported Sunday that Georgia ranks 51st out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of ninth-graders who graduate four years later. The percentage of dropouts has worsened from 37.3 percent in 1990 to 49.6 percent in 1999. That's about 63,000 droputs in the freshman class. That's an alarming statistic, for certain.
Litigation is likely.
Some politicians and interest group activists argue that it will boost dropout rates. For 30 years, Georgia has been at the bottom of the pack nationally in high school graduation rates. Calls for scrapping the social promotion exams, which will be phased in beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, are nonsense. The dropout rate will worsen if students continue to be promoted without basic reading and math skills. Social promotion prods students into dropping out because they get to high school and don't have the basic skills to do the work.