Talk about putting your money where your mouth is, just before Christmas, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert donated the last of his $60,000 mayoral salary to a program aimed at boosting college attendance among high school graduates.
Leppert, a former chief executive of Turner Construction, had already committed $50,000 of his wages to a college scholarship fund targeted to students attending predominantly low-income, high minority high schools in Dallas.
Nationally, 67 percent of graduates from the class of 2007 went on to college, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Statewide, the college enrollment rate in Texas in 2006 was 55 percent, according to the National Information Center for Higher Education and Policy Making Analysis.
Dallas, the 12th largest school system in the nation, has a long way to go, as less than half of all ninth-graders graduate from high school four years later.
”We have kids who can’t link staying in school, going to college and what that means later in life,” Leppert told the Dallas Morning News.
And making those linkages are critically important, especially in today’s tough economic climate and competitive job market. High school dropouts earn, on average, nearly $10,000 less than those with a diploma; the difference doubles to $20,000 in annual wages when comparing high school and college graduates with a bachelor’s degree.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
