Higher spending at school for at-risk students saves the state money

I write in response to the Aug. 17 article in The Post and Courier regarding the most expensive schools in the Charleston County School District.

As the director at Septima Clark Academy, which is listed as having the third most expensive per capita operating costs in the district, I would like to point out that the numbers listed for our program were for the 2006-07 school year when we had 89 students. We have since recognized the need to expand.

For the 2007-08 school year, our enrollment increased to 112 students and 149 students arrived this week for the coming year.

While our costs are unquestionably higher than some schools with larger student populations, education dollars spent on education at Clark Academy are among the wisest expenditures of resources in the district. Here's why.

Our students are intelligent and extremely capable of learning, and of graduating from high school. But they are profoundly at-risk. At Clark, the term "at-risk" is not just rhetorical. Our students have run into difficulty succeeding at other larger high schools in the district. The reasons vary but are tied statistically to their socio-economic status. Some of our students lack financial resources or stable, nurturing family relationships. Others may have learning disabilities that have not been properly accommodated in the past. Others have simply become lost in the crowd at larger schools.

What our students have in common is that Clark Academy may be their last shot at success in high school, which in this day and time, is a very fundamental pre-requisite for a successful and productive adult life.

For the most compelling evidence of how at-risk students are succeeding at Clark, we need look no further than the phenomenal 2007-08 school year. When classes began in the fall of last year, 11 Clark students were on track to graduate in June 2008.

Through a rigorous curriculum taught by a staff of 15 dedicated teachers, who are committed to the idea of providing a positive, nurturing environment to at-risk students, 34 seniors graduated that June.

Perhaps more significantly, all 34 graduates passed the South Carolina HSAP Exam. Only two other schools in Charleston County can claim a 100 percent HSAP pass rate among graduating seniors: School of the Arts and Academic Magnet, both of which serve academically strong student populations.

Many of the Clark graduates marching across the stage at the Circular Congregational Church on June 6 were the first in their families to receive a high school diploma.

This did not happen in a vacuum. Clark students receive intense, one-on-one attention from teachers in smaller classes. The student-teacher ratio at Clark in 2007-08 was seven to one. Clark also has an aggressive credit recovery program in which many seniors, as well as underclassmen, make passing grades in subjects they had previously failed.

Can you put a price tag on the value of 34 young adults beating the odds and leaving high school as productive members of society? You most certainly can. You can look to the burgeoning costs of welfare and incarceration. You can look to the ever-increasing cost of the overcrowded criminal justice system. You can look to packed court dockets and overflowing prison populations.

It costs the state of South Carolina $98 million a year to cover the costs associated with the 52.8 percent high school dropout rate, according to statistics cited in a Post and Courier editorial in August 2007. Also cited in that editorial is a $277 million annual loss in tax revenues directly related to the high school dropout rate.

Money spent on a program with empirical evidence of success in the very difficult task of educating at-risk high school students is money well spent, especially when compared to the alternative of letting the welfare and criminal justice systems create an exponentially larger cost to society.

When you look at the issue of educating at-risk students with this fiscal perspective, the relevant question is not so much, "Can we afford it?" but instead, "How can we not?"

KEVIN D. McCLELLAND

Director

Septima Clark Academy

Grimball Road

Charleston

---

Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. The Post and Courier does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our Web site.
Full terms and conditions can be read here.

---

Comments

This article has  0 comment(s)