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For such a rich, technology-oriented nation, America has a high school graduation rate that’s particularly anemic — and worrisome. Only 70 percent of high school freshmen graduate, and the numbers are worse among African Americans and Latinos. Last week, President Obama proposed a $900 million program aimed at tackling America’s “dropout epidemic,” the Associated Press reports. His fiscal 2011 budget proposal would fund School Turnaround Grants that would, over five years, target the country’s 5,000 worst performing schools. States and school districts would be rewarded for drastically overhauling the troubled schools, or even shutting them down. The administration, the AP says, is also asking Congress for $50 million to fund a dropout prevention program that would include efforts to make use of data to identify early on students at risk of dropping out, and help teachers personalize instruction for those kids, with the aim of helping them remain in school. “In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school not only means giving up on your future, but it’s also giving up on your family’s future. It’s giving up on your country,” Obama said in announcing the plan.

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