Hardship greater for girl dropouts

Last year, Mariah Phillips thought she could make it in the world as a waitress — no diplomas required. But just months after dropping out her senior year of high school she discovered waitressing at Ruby Tuesday’s wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Pregnant at 15, Jade Edwards thought she could make it work without a diploma, too. But several years of data entry at an insurance company for $9.50 an hour showed her otherwise. She couldn’t support herself and her son on those wages.

“I had to come back to school,” said Edwards, now 21 and attending Sun Valley High School, a Mesa charter school that specializes in helping dropouts return to school. “You go for a job, you have nothing. ... I couldn’t move up because I didn’t have a diploma or a GED. I was just doing data entry. It wasn’t my career, it was just a job.”

A report released this week by the National Women’s Law Center finds that an alarming number of girls like Phillips and Edwards are facing severe economic hardship because they quit school — with Arizona having the second-highest female dropout rate in the nation.

Dropout rates vary greatly from study to study because there are multiple ways to calculate them.

For instance, the Arizona Department of Education says 10,254 females dropped out during the 2005-06 school year, a rate of 4.1 percent. But the National Women’s Law Center report says 40 percent of females in Arizona fail to graduate within four years. Some may take longer to get a diploma, while others quit for good.

The study’s authors determined that factors like pregnancy, family responsibilities, falling behind in schoolwork, getting low grades and low family expectations might lead to girls dropping out.

Perhaps more disturbing, however, was what the report found about these girls’ financial futures.

“Clearly there are substantial economic risks for any dropout,” said Jocelyn Samuels, the center’s vice-president of education and employment. “But girls are at particular risk. They have higher rates of unemployment, lower wages, higher levels of reliance on Medicaid and welfare programs.”

Female dropouts earn about $9,100 less annually than male dropouts, according to 2007 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which reports that the median annual income of female dropouts is $15,520.

Edwards and Phillips said far too many of the girls they have known have dropped out — and are now paying the price.

“Nowadays, girls are dating boys so much older than they are,” Phillips said. “The guys tell them, 'don’t worry about school, you don’t have to go, I’ll take care of you.’”

And many of the girls go along with it, she said.

That worries educators and women’s rights advocates alike.

Women face a pay gap at every level of education, Samuels said, but it’s at its widest among high school dropouts.

Lower incomes mean less power in the hands of the girls, and it makes it harder for them to leave situations like abusive relationships, said Carol Shepherd, spokeswoman for the Apache Junction Unified School District.

Carleen Cranmer, director of the school district’s Young Parents Program, said she’s not surprised at the report’s findings, though she’s not sure why the income gap is there.

“I don’t know why, it could be the way our society is still,” she said. “It could also be when boys drop out they aren’t carrying the baby. They’re not pregnant. They can stay and work. The money may be more attractive. We don’t have as many fathers participating in there. A lot of the boys, we don’t really see them investing in their children until they’re a little older.”

A recent study by the Gates Foundation found that among dropouts, nearly one-third of girls reported that becoming a parent played a major role in their decision to leave school.

That’s why some schools, like Sun Valley, offer on-site daycare for teen parents. Without it, Edwards said, there’s no way she could finish school. Not only that, she said, but the staff gives respect and flexibility in dealing with her son, who is now 4.

For example, on Tuesday she had to take Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards in the late afternoon, and she wouldn’t be done before the school’s daycare closed. So the principal watched her son in the front office until she completed the exam.

Both Edwards and Phillips will soon graduate. Edwards hopes to make it into the National Honor Society this semester, and wants to become a dental assistant. Phillips plans to enter the field of child psychology.

But while Edwards and Phillips can easily identify the things Sun Valley has done to help them get back on track, neither was sure what could be done to keep girls from dropping out in the first place.

“I was so young,” remembers Edwards. “I just didn’t know how important it was. But thank God I came here last year before it was too late.”