State also No. 1 in high school dropouts

Art Nadler

Friday, May 21, 1999 | 11:42 a.m.

Nevada leads the nation in high school dropout rates, a national foundation reported this week.

The "Kids Count Data Book: State Profiles of Child Well-Being," was released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore. It showed that Nevada had a high school dropout rate of 17 percent among teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 in 1996. The national average was 10 percent.

The dropout rate represented a 4 percent increase for Nevada from 1985, when the national average was 11 percent.

Dr. Brian Cram, Clark County superintendent of schools, said there are various reasons for the highest ranking, some of which he said school officials had little control over.

"The ranking is a combination of employment opportunities for teenagers and the 80 to 90 percent turnover rate," Cram said.

The turnover, he said, occurs when families move to Southern Nevada for job opportunities and are forced to leave when they don't materialize.

Cram said the dropout rate is affected by transient students who leave the state with their families, which is recorded as them leaving school. The superintendent said the district has to do a better job of tracking former students.

Cram also blames parents for being too lenient with teenagers in allowing them to leave school for high-paying jobs in the hospitality industry. Many of these teenagers' parents, he said, don't stress the importance of education to their children.

"The states that have the lowest dropout rates have the highest number of parents with college degrees," Cram said, adding that many Nevada parents themselves have service industry jobs and tend to push their children into these careers.

Cram said the bottom line is to do whatever is necessary to keep teenagers in school. He said the state needs to stop charging students for summer school because it acts as a deterrent. He also felt more alternative education programs should be offered to students to spark their interest, and parents should monitor their teens' progress in the classroom.

On the positive side, Nevada had a low infant mortality rate. In 1996, it had 6.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The national average was 7.3. In 1985, the state had 8.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, and the nation had 10.6.

Dr. Bernard Feldman, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, attributes this to an aggressive drive to lower infant mortality.

Feldman said he was involved with Sunrise Hospital in 1974 in starting a neonatal intensive care unit to provide better care for the first 28 days of an infant's life. Also, he said Sunrise and University Medical Center, which also has a neonatal intensive care unit, went after Medicaid dollars to support their programs.

The medical school's commitment to pediatrics is still another factor, Feldman said. As of July 1, there will be 22 pediatric resident doctors in the pediatric program. This is more than double the current number of 10 residents.

"This demonstrates that by putting money into a program, it improves the quality," Feldman said.

The Kids Count report showed that more teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 were getting pregnant in Nevada than the national average. Nevada ranked 42 in the nation with a pregnancy rate of 42 teenage girls per 1,000 getting pregnant.

Feldman thinks the high dropout rate has a lot to do with this, along with a lack of sex education both in the schools and at home. He said parents and the school district should do more to promote delayed sexual relationships among children.

"High dropout rates and teenage pregnancy usually go together," Feldman said. "These teenagers are at high risk for child abuse, and their children will display emotional disabilities."

Overall, Kids Count ranked Nevada 36 in the nation on the well-being of its children.