MONTPELIER, Vt. -
A drop out debate is brewing in Montpelier. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would raise the legal drop out age in Vermont.
A group of juniors and seniors sits in Mr. Tillotson's AP History class at Montpelier High -- not one of them is required to be there.
"I think a lot of us are motivated to stay in school and work hard, our grade is competitive as it is, we all want to stay in and go to college," said Sara Hartson, a junior.
Students in Vermont are only legally required to attend school until the age of sixteen. Several Vermont senators want to change that age to 18.
"We shouldn't leave any child behind if there's a way we can do it that isn't disruptive to the rest of them," said Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland).
Disruption is a top concern for educators. They say pushing kids to stay in school that don't want to will take away from the quality of education. The Governor agrees with them. "If you really want to give teachers a challenge require them to teach students who have been sentenced to school I've never been a big believer in that," Gov. Shumlin said.
Twenty-six other states have a mandate to keep kids in school past the age of 16, but compared to those schools Vermont has a much lower dropout rate -- it hovers around 3-percent. Nationwide the drop out rate is 8-percent.
"We're doing better than the rest of the country but that doesn't mean we should let our guard down, because even if it's only 2-percent of the kids, those kids need our help probably more than anybody," Sen. Mullin said.
Along with keeping kids in school longer the bill would require schools to have a truant officer, someone who would be required to physically track down students who are skipping school. Principal Peter Evans says this has been done before and it's a waste of time.
"I don't know of a case in the 20 years I've been a principal. I don't know of a case where that's resulted in a student returning to school," he said.
Senator Mullin hopes to combine dual enrollment -- getting high school students in college courses for free with his bill, which is still in the formative stages.
