Parents: The Key to Education

I live in a state that has a 40% drop out rate. This fact ranks us forty-ninth in the nation in regards to high school graduation. Not a statistic to be posted on the roof tops. Education has been a hot topic during this election year, particularly in the state's gubernatorial race. Of course each candidate promised to fix the education problem and both plans focused on education funding and how it should and shouldn't be spent.

Unfortunately neither candidtate understood that the cure for the education problem isn't the money, it's the family. The dissolution of the family unit. Until there is a concentrated focus on the strengthening of the family it wont matter how much money is thrown towards education there will still be little improvement. Now, there will always be some students that no matter what teachers and parents/ family members do that will always drop-out. But those are the rebels and the renegades and are a relatively small part of the student body population. The majority of those who do drop-out do so for the simple fact that there is no one at home who cares if they don't. I don't believe that of the 40% drop out students 100% of them are those kind of individuals who are the rebels and renegade, who aren't going to go to school no matter what anyone does. I would say maybe 5% of drop-outs fall into that category the rest are individuals who are apathetic to education, who have no parental or family support and as a result there is no driving force at home to encourage, motivate, discipline or hold these students accountable for their decisions. In my opinion money spent educating would have a better and longer lasting effect if it was used to strengthen the family unit. There is a reason the family is the fundamental building block of society.