Requiring Maryland students to remain in school until they turn age 18 could drastically reduce dropout rates but would cost the state $200 million a year and worsen the existing shortage of teachers, classroom space and other resources, according to a new report.
A yearlong study by a statewide task force of 50 educators, community leaders and legislators recommended raising the public school compulsory attendance age from 16. Maryland law allows students to drop out at age 16 with parental permission.
Baltimore lawmakers have been pushing the change for four years, but it didn't get to a vote in the General Assembly because of concerns over what it would cost.
"It's always died because of the cost factor, and I don't get that," said state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat sponsoring a bill to raise the attendance age. "When these children start school at 5, we ought to be prepared to pay for them to stay in school until 18."
Pugh said she believes that the study, which provides more data on what steps schools should take and what it would cost, has provided momentum to change the compulsory attendance age.
"With this report and all the data in it, I think we'll be able to get it to the floor," Pugh said. "This is about the state's future. We have to do something."
The report's authors, who spent a year tracking national trends and studying the fiscal and social impact of raising the compulsory attendance age, acknowledged that the effort faces an uphill battle.
Keeping students in school until 18, according to the report, would flood schools with 21,000 more students. School systems would need to hire 1,100 more teachers to serve the additional population - not easy in a state that wrestles with an acute shortage. Colleges and universities in Maryland produce less than half the number of teachers needed to fill 7,000 vacancies each year.
The effort comes at a time when Gov. Martin O'Malley is holding the line on spending. Coming up with the money to recruit teachers out of state and abroad, pay for nearly 600 more portable classrooms, school construction and renovations to accommodate the swelling enrollment could be a challenge.
Pugh spent last week huddling with members of the Senate's Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, hoping to smooth the way for the bill.
Committee members who got their first look at the report last month said they were encouraged to learn that 27 states and the District of Columbia have pushed up the mandatory age to 17 or 18.
Some of the results in the study have raised concerns. State Sen. Jim Rosapepe, a Democrat from Prince George's County, said he was disappointed that few other states could prove that raising compulsory attendance age directly contributed to lower dropout rates.
The report found that raising the compulsory attendance age was only one factor in lowering dropout rates. In some cases, other interventions could have helped improve students' chances of success in high school.
Joe Sacco, executive director of the Baltimore Truancy Assessment Center, said chronic truants miss 10 or more days of school for various reasons. For some, it's a slow process of disengagement over years of not clicking with teachers or doing well in class, Sacco said.
In other cases, counselors at the center find students who stay at home to care for siblings while parents work or skip school to avoid trouble with gangs.
"Sometimes it's just about survival," Sacco said. "It's not like just changing the law will keep students in school."
Still, Sacco said raising the attendance age is "worth trying."
In Maryland - where 10,294 students dropped out in the last school year - initiatives have ranged from creating alternative settings with smaller student-teacher ratios to mentoring programs that increase personal connections with at-risk students.
Maryland can't expect to stem the dropout problem by simply keeping students in school two years longer, said task force Chairman Ranjit Dhindsa.
"It's not so simple as to say, 'Let's make an age change,'" said Dhindsa, a Bethesda attorney who has spent the past two decades running a student-leadership workshop.
The existing law - an artifact of an age when 16-year-olds could get a factory job or work in agriculture without a high school diploma - is due for a change, said Robert Balfanz, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins University.
The state task force's 112-page report contains recommendations that go beyond raising the attendance age. It requires changes in state law as well as policy revisions by the State Board of Education.
Among the proposals from the task force:
Redefining the path to graduation by considering five years of high school for struggling students instead of four.
Creating a uniform system of truancy courts in all systems to ensure students are staying in school until 18.
Awarding alternative diplomas for non-English-speaking students that carry the same weight as traditional diplomas.
Changing state law to allow students to earn General Educational Development diplomas without having to drop out first, as the current law requires.
Pugh also has submitted a bill that would allow students to remain in school while pursuing a GED diploma.
"Students need different paths to graduate sometimes," she said. "I don't see why students have to drop out of school before they take the GED. They don't need that blemish on their record."
ruma.kumar@baltsun.com