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Reduce teen pregnancies to reduce the dropout rate

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Staff

By Paige Johnson

For a senior in high school, there is no greater season than spring. Warm weather and trees in bloom seem to coincide with a 12th grader’s growing sense of triumph and potential. Prom night, family celebrations and high school graduation are only days away. Her future is filled with promise or, at least, that’s how it should be.

The future of far too many students in our state does not include this rite of passage. They never celebrate reaching the milestone of high school graduation because they drop out. In fact, roughly one-third of North Carolina’s high school students fail to receive a high school diploma.

The reasons for this alarming statistic are as complex as the lives of many high school students. Some lack
parental involvement, others fall behind early and never catch up. For a relatively small but significant number, the demands of parenting make completing high school virtually impossible.

Ask any parent of any age and they are sure to say that becoming a parent made their life more complicated. Having a child may bring joy, but it also brings financial and emotional demands that most 16 year olds are not prepared to handle, especially on their own.

In North Carolina, 53 teenage girls become pregnant every day. We have the ninth highest rate of teen pregnancy in the country. Almost 30 percent of teen pregnancies in North Carolina involve teenagers who are pregnant for a second time. More than 60 percent of seniors in high school say they have had sex. Yet, “abstinence until marriage only” is the standard healthy-living curriculum in our schools.

No wonder so many students think high school is irrelevant to their lives. According to “The Silent Epidemic,” a recently released study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 26 percent of students who dropped out of high school did so because they became a parent. Almost 50 percent of those who dropped out said they became disengaged because school had little relevance to their lives.
When a young person drops out of school before graduating, we all lose. We lose the contributions these students could make as productive and educated workers and we end up paying much more for welfare programs and prisons. Studies show students who drop out of high school are more likely to rely on public assistance and become involved in the criminal justice system.

But the real cost is borne by the teenager, who in all likelihood will live a life mired in poverty and reduced potential. This is particularly true for young women who give birth as teenagers and do not finish high school. Girls who drop out are less likely than their male counterparts to be gainfully employed and more likely to rely on public assistance.

The tragedy of lost potential tends to be passed on to the next generation as well. According to “When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail,” a new study by the National Women’s Law Center, children of teenage mothers who drop out of high school are also more likely to leave school before receiving their diplomas.

North Carolina’s high drop-out rate has recently garnered much deserved attention by the state Legislature.
Business and education leaders joined legislators in awarding $7 million dollars in dropout-prevention funding. The Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation will be responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of this investment.

Issues tend to be trendy, garnering media and legislative attention for a while and then disappearing from the public’s eye. Teenagers have always, and will always, get pregnant. If we expect those who have babies to succeed in school, then we need to make sure that they have adequate resources and support to do so. Wishful thinking cannot make this challenge go away.

We can, however, do more to reduce unintended pregnancies. For starters, we can make school relevant to the lives of young people by providing real sex education in the classroom. We can stop wasteful spending on “abstinence until marriage only” programs and instead invest in the real lives and the real needs of young people.

Paige Johnson is the director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina.

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