Show He Finds Out p Too Late We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others It has become a n necessity e c e s s sit i t Y without which a person is defenseless in this complex industrialized society We have truly entered the century of the educated educated educated edu edu- man The then the n Vice-President Vice Lyndon Johnson sa said i d those words in a commencement address address address add add- ress in 1963 Their truth is be becoming becoming becoming be- be coming clearer every day Many young Americans are answering the challenge to be become become become be- be come better e educated due ate d. d Last year 18 percent of our young people between the ages of 1624 1624 1624 16 24 were high school dropouts as compared with 25 percent in 1960 But this red reduction u c t ion is not enough The frightening fact remains that too many teenagers teenagers teenagers teen teen- agers still consider education a luxury At the current dropout rate by 1975 there will be 32 million adults in the labor force without a high s school c h 0 0 1 education education education edu edu- cation 32 million people who will be unqualified for most of tomorrows tomorrow's jobs To stave off this tide of un unskilled unskilled unskilled un- un skilled workers in a booming ec economy nomy Pre President sid e n t Johnson has directed the Presidents President's Council on Youth Opportunity to 1 launch a u n c h the 1967 Stay-in- Stay School Campaign Every citizen citizen citizen citi citi- zen young and old parent and teenager is being asked to support this drive to assure that all who still have a chance for a decent education stay in school and get it A young person today dissatisfied dissatisfied dissatisfied dis dis- satisfied with school and anxious anxious anxious ous to get out and work for the money he wants is heading down downa a end dead-end street of f he pursues pursues pursues pur pur- sues his dreams without a high school diploma He finds out too late that the job he longed for wi will l be at best a dull dirty one with little opportunity for advance advance- ment Or the jobless rate of 13 percent for school dropouts suddenly becomes very real realto realto realto to him as he discovers that he doesn't have the ticket he needs to get through the employers' employers doors The money he needs to buy the car the clothes or the stereo he wanted so badly just isn't there He will make less money than those who graduated when he does find a job and his future in any job is limited In short a dropout learns quickly and cruelly what Lyndon Johnson meant when he called education a necessity For man many Y of these young people there is still time They can go back and finish high school For others it is too late Those who are still in school and considering dropping outface outface out outface face one of the most crucial decisions of their lives It is up to all of us to follow the President in urging them to go goback goback goback back to school this fall and stay there until they have at least leasta a high school diploma The education they get now charts their the course not only for individual lives but for the welfare welfare welfare wel wel- fare of our country in the coming decades |