06.18.06
Houston is still trailing in education
Houston lags in education
Study reports city is hurt by dropouts, poverty
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
More students need to graduate from high school and college if the Houston area is going to be competitive in an economy that is knowledge-based, a Gulf Coast Workforce Board report says.
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For the second year, the board compared Houston with Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, Dallas, San Antonio and Miami. It used publicly available economic data, ranging from job growth to median household income to the number of new businesses.
The Houston area scored fifth among the seven, losing points because a higher proportion of its residents live in poverty, don’t speak English and haven’t finished college.
Another troubling fact, according to the report, is the low ratio between 12th graders to 9th graders which, while it doesn’t directly correspond to a drop-out rate, indicates students are leaving high school before they graduate.
The higher the ratio, the better. In San Diego, for example, the ratio is 0.76 and in Denver it’s 0.69. In Houston, however, the ratio is 0.58.
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