NORMAL -- Alarming high school dropout rates threaten to cripple the U.S. recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and a leading children's advocate urged local business leaders Thursday to take actions now -- for their own good.
The challenge goes beyond a shrinking pool of qualified labor, said Alma Powell, chair of America's Promise Alliance, during Thursday's Community Leaders Breakfast at the new Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in uptown Normal. More than 600 people attended.
The 41,000 dropouts in Illinois in 2008 are missing out on $11 billion in lost lifetime wages, and businesses and other taxpayers are affected because four in 10 dropouts receive some type of public aid, said Powell.
Powell, whose husband, retired Gen. Colin Powell, was the alliance's founding chair, urged local businesses to get involved now, by adopting a school or encouraging employees to take off time to mentor youths.
"Go in and clean up the bathroom, or paint the walls," she said at the breakfast, hosted by the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area. "Then, go in and help them with their schoolwork."
She pointed to the success of a newly formed "Promise Council" at Unit 5's Pepper Ridge Elementary School in Normal, where about 100 adults pledged a commitment to help students succeed. Powell said State Farm Insurance Cos. helped that effort and is a leading sponsor of the alliance's dropout prevention campaign.
While the dropout rates at many Central Illinois schools fall below state and national averages, Powell said Detroit - whose graduation rate of 38 percent is among the country's lowest - has set a 10-year goal to graduate 80 percent of its youth from its 35 so-called "dropout factories."
Powell suggested that any recovery of the U.S. auto industry, for example, may rely on educating Detroit's future work force, which will rely heavily on technology. "It's not something you pick up by just hanging around it," Powell said.
Meanwhile, EDC chief executive officer Marty Vanags highlighted the council's successes in the past year, including a pilot program to develop the nursing work force, a New Leadership Board focusing on young business leaders, and the annual "One Voice" lobbying effort in Washington, D.C.
Still, he conceded "this year has not been a boom year for job creation" in McLean County, as the unemployment rate hit 7.4 percent in September, its highest since 1982 and up from 5.2 percent in September 2008. Exact numbers on jobs created or retained by the EDC this year were not available.
But among the bright spots were the opening of the new Marriott and the addition in November 2008 of a well-received daily nonstop flight to Dallas-Fort Worth from Bloomington's Central Illinois Regional Airport.
"Without (the local business community's support), actually in the negotiations and through financial support, this flight would not have happened," said airport authority chairman Paul Harmon.