Reyna: South Texas College should start a charter school for high school dropouts

EDINBURG, Texas – South Texas College should set up a charter school for high school dropouts in Hidalgo and Starr counties, says its former dean of business and technology.

Mario Reyna says that at the college the dropouts would be able to earn a high school diploma and a post-secondary certificate to improve their chances of getting a good job. And, he said, STC would receive full funding from the state to educate the students.

Reyna is now a leader within the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force. He made his remarks at a recent dropout prevention and recovery meeting hosted by Region One Education Service Center. STC administrators were in the audience.

Reyna noted that since the Prosperity Task Force started, the poverty level in Hidalgo County has gone down one percent. He then ran through some alarming numbers.

Reyna pointed out that Hidalgo County is among the least well-educated counties in the state of Texas. He said 68 percent of the county’s working age population, 25 and over, have a high school education. For the state it is 85 percent. For the nation, 89 percent. “If we don’t change that number our situation is not going to change,” Reyna said.

The medium income in Hidalgo County is $49,000, Reyna reported. In Texas it is $73,000 and in the United States it is $75,000. Another startling statistic Reyna referenced: 27.4 percent of Hidalgo County residents live in poverty. In Texas the percentage is 14. In the United States it is 11.5.

“Can you imagine how America would be reacting right now if 27.4 percent were living in poverty. They would be going nuts. And we should be going nuts. We should not allow that to happen,” Reyna said.

Reyna then addressed the dropout population. He said there are 25,000 dropouts aged 15 to 25 in Hidalgo County. He said there are 152,000 people in the county without a high school education.

“We should take that number real serious,” Reyna said. “We know what to do with that age group (18-25) because there is money there (for the school districts).”

Reyna said STC can do more.

“The people I talk to say STC can play a bigger role. How? By creating a charter school. If you create a charter school then you can go out and recruit all these folks, put them in the system and you can put them in college-level courses and at the same time help them complete their (high school) education. You can do that,” Reyna said.

Reyna said charter schools can participate in dropout recovery programs also, along with public schools. He said the money is there to fund such programs, courtesy of the state of Texas.

“It is really up to us. And, like Dr. King has said, all the other problems we have, well, there is no money. Well, this one has money. This one has the money there that we can use. So, it is really up to us to do this.”

Reyna was referring to Dr. Daniel P. King, executive director of Region One. King spoke earlier at the meeting. In his precious capacity as superintendent of schools for Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD, King implemented a nationally recognized dropout prevention and recovery program. It was dropped by King’s successor but is now being reinstated by PSJA’s current superintendent.

“Imagine that all of you get involved (in dropout recovery programs),” Reyna said, addressing the high school and STC administrators in the audience.

“I looked at one number at one point. It said we are graduating about one thousand people with GEDs and what not. We have 152,000. If nothing else happens it is going to take us 152 years. We don’t have that luxury of time.”

Reyna reiterated that state money is available to fund dropout recovery programs. PSJA, Edcouch-Elsa and Weslaco ISDs are taking advantage, the meeting heard earlier.

“We know that there is the money that we can use. So now we just have to get organized. Get organized and let’s do this. If we can get 10,000 people out of this (dropout) category, if we can move ten thousand people out of poverty imagine what this does to everything in the community,” Reyna said.

“I don’t want to sound like trickle-down economics but when things go up, everybody is going to be doing better. Just imagine for one minute if all of us started to take advantage of this (dropout recovery funding) law. You are going to have to hire people to administer the program, you are going to have hire faculty to do this. You start to think about all the jobs that we can create. It is an enormous amount of jobs.

“So, this is where we are. STC, I really want you to think about it, go back and talk to your folks and see what they think about this idea.”

Reyna said if a school district started a dropout recovery program, they would likely have to operate a special campus, just like PSJA did back in the day.

“You have to create a new campus. That is what Pharr did. Pharr bought the old Walmart, and they called it Career and Technology. A lot of school districts may not be able to do that. But I think STC can play a role in something like this.”

Reyna added: “I think we have the ability, we have the money, so I think we should give it a go.”

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