I WAS struck by two recent front-page stories on education. One focused on the drop-out problem (“Law urged to make teens stay in school,’’ Oct. 21). The other focused on pre-kindergarten teachers visiting the homes of their young students as part of innovative programs in Boston and Springfield public schools (“Teachers’ house calls make pupils, parents feel at home,’’ Oct. 22). In the second story lie some answers to the problem outlined in the first.
Children who attend a high-quality early education program are estimated to be 30 percent more likely to graduate from high school than children who do not. With each dropout costing taxpayers $118,000, as the Globe states, the math is striking. We also know that children who do not read well in third grade run a far greater risk of not finishing high school. In many cities with the highest dropout rates, fewer than 40 percent of third graders read proficiently.
As a businessman, father, and grandfather, I know it is less expensive economically and emotionally to prevent a problem than to solve it. Investing in high-quality early education is a more effective way to combat the dropout problem than raising the age at which teenagers can quit school.
Paul O’Brien
Boston
The writer is cochairman of the Early Education for All Campaign.
