A Plan for the Future of America

Please read these words with an open heart and mind. Angry, disenfranchised, disgruntled, drug and alcohol abusing, dropout prone...even criminally-active teenagers are NOT someone else's problem. They are not the police's problem...the public school's problem...or their overwhelmed...and often absent...parent(s)' problem. It is NOT a black, brown, red, yellow, or white...or any other color of skin's problem! These children ARE our challenge...even our responsibility. There is an effective and PROVEN plan to help them. Read on to learn about the plan. Before your blood pressure blows your hairpiece to pieces...and prior to your typing finger posting an indignant reply...consider this writer's reasoning. Instead of spending billions of dollars building prisons and many more billions housing societies' malcontents and even worse people in those same prisons....I have a better and much more humane plan. Why don't we invest our billions in the lives of "at-risk" children BEFORE they tumble down the slippery slope leading to a tax-draining, lost life? No, I'm not proposing another boondoggle, intellectually bankrupt government program. Instead, I'm proposing a grand coalition of like-minded organizations, for-profit and non-profit, to attack this titanic challenge. How? By putting together this grand coalition that will efficiently and cost-effectively address every challenge facing our nation's at-risk children...from Pre-K to High School Graduation...or until they no longer require assistance outside the public school system. In other words, invest our money on the front-end of challenged children's lives instead of spending billions incarcerating a significant percentage of these same children later in their lives. The research is in and it is irrefutable. 75% of America's state prison inmates are also dropouts. Dropouts cost American taxpayers about $300,000 over their lifetime...it cost around $4,000 to provide a child a mentor/Iife-coach from Pre-K to HS Graduation. Where do you think it is wiser and more humane to invest our tax dollars? Will we save all the at-risk children that our grand coalition serves...of course not. Any more than an affluent, two parent, church attending family will guarantee that one or more of their children won't lose their way and end up in trouble. But we will help millions of children to become productive, tax paying citizens...not entitled, tax draining Americans. This is an ambitious proposition...the coalition will be a huge challenge to assemble...and an even larger challenge to fund...but it CAN and MUST be done. The resources required for this grand coalition will necessitate that ISDs, state, federal, foundation, philanthropic, and corporate funds combine to make it work. We have failed miserably attempting to fix broken adults...is it not past time to provide a pathway to a promising future for America's at-risk children? We can do it...if we find the political will and moral courage to accomplish something special for these worthy children...a fair chance at realizing the American Dream! ~ Michael Edward Clearman