RAISE UP Act: Preparing Disadvantaged Youth for a Competitive Future
Background
In 2007, one out of seven (16 percent) of people between the ages of 16 and 24 were high school dropouts.[1] The number of dropouts grows by the day, with three out of ten high school students not graduating on time.[2] Dropping out of high school has the impact of a permanent recession for our youth. High school dropouts earn less than 6 percent of all dollars earned in the U.S. In the nation's 50 largest cities, high school dropouts make $10,000 less per year than high school graduates, and $34,000 less than college graduates. Further, only one-third (37 percent) of high school dropouts nationwide are steadily employed, and they are more than twice as likely to live in poverty.[3]
When young people drop out of high school, there is no system in place to find those students, identify why they dropped out, and connect them to the supports they needs to succeed in school and work. Research and practice demonstrate the need to serve disconnected youth comprehensively; yet persistent gaps remain.[4] The RAISE UP Act offers a strategy to close these gaps. RAISE UP challenges every high school dropout to attain a high school diploma, a postsecondary credential, and a family supporting career - and provides them with the support to succeed.
Summary of Legislation
This legislation is about building intentional dropout recovery systems at the local level. RAISE UP supports a community-wide systemic approach to provide opportunities and strengthen supports for youth across workforce development, secondary education, and postsecondary education systems to address the needs of youth who have been disconnected from society. RAISE UP seeks to create and expand efforts to connect youth to a range of options within and outside of traditional school systems that lead to a high school diploma, industry recognized certificate or credential, or college degree.
Community partnerships would receive federal funds to integrate existing, often disparate services, into a comprehensive, cross-systems dropout recovery approach. Grants would be given to the partnerships, who would then subgrant out funds to provide services that focus on education, job training, and wraparound support services. These partnerships would include representatives from the local government (i.e. elected officials, such as mayors and chief municipal officers and their staff), local educational agency, juvenile justice system, criminal justice system, workforce system, housing agency, mental health agency, child welfare, post-secondary educational institutions, community-based organizations, parent groups, young people, etc.
Specifically, local partnerships will:
Assess the needs and potential resources in the community
- Set goals and performance measures
- Integrate disparate community resources into a comprehensive strategy
- Provide high school dropouts with education assistance, workforce preparation, and youth support (including wraparound services ranging from drug treatment to housing)
- Measure and report results
The intent of the legislation is not to create duplicative collaborations at the local level. Rather, to the extent possible, RAISE UP will build on the work of local youth councils or other appropriately constituted entities, providing they meet the composition criteria outlined in the legislation or are willing to expand.
Eligible Participants: This legislation would serve young people in disadvantaged situations that left secondary school without receiving a high school diploma, as well as young people at risk of not completing on-time graduation. This also includes runaway and homeless youth, youth in foster care and those aging out of care, formerly incarcerated and court-involved youth and young people with disabilities.
Allowable Use of Funds: Youth must receive at least one service from among three categories of services: workforce preparation, education assistance, and youth support. This includes but is not limited to:
- Workforce preparation: job training, meaningful internship and apprenticeship opportunities, national and community service, and compensation for summer and year-round employment opportunities;
- Education assistance: tutoring, career and technical education, dual enrollment programs, early college high schools, financial assistance, and post secondary programs, which may include attainment of a GED, if the GED attainment is an element of the pathway toward achieving a postsecondary credential;
- Youth Support: case management, health services, mental health services, or drug treatment services; housing, transportation, childcare, and mentoring.
Priority: This legislation gives priority to applications from eligible entities proposing to serve areas with disproportionately high numbers of young people who have left secondary school without obtaining a diploma, and applications that serve areas with high concentrations of young people from low-income families.
Authorization: This bill is authorized at $1 billion for FY10, and "such sums as may be necessary" for FY11-FY14. Of amounts appropriated, a total of no more than 10% can be used for evaluation, technical assistance, and dissemination of best practices.
[1] Sum, A. (2009). Left behind in America: The nation's dropout crisis. Boston, MA: Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University.
[2] Education Week (2009). Diplomas count 2009: Broader horizons. Education Week, 28(34). Editorial Projects in Education.
[3] Swanson, C. (2009). Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap: Educational and Economic Conditions in America's Largest Cities. Bethesda, Maryland: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center..
[4] GAO (2008). Disconnected youth: Federal action could address some of the challenges faced by local programs that reconnect youth to education and employment. GAO-08-313. Washington, DC: Author.