Thompson Falls Chamber discusses Graduation Matters

THOMPSON FALLS – The Thompson Falls Chamber of Commerce met on Thursday and discussed Graduation Matters Montana.
According to High School Principal, Jason Slater, high school graduation is now more important than ever.
“Generations before there was a lot more opportunity to go out, get jobs and be successful. Today the work force is demanding more and more education for the kids,” said Slater.
One of the aims of the program is to focus on graduating with a purpose and developing a plan to get to that point.
In Montana, $216 million is spent annually on dropouts’ reduced taxable income. Nearly 80 percent of male inmates and 75 percent of female inmates at the Montana State Prison did not graduate high school. According to the presentation given, dropouts are often times more likely to live in poverty, have poor health, and parent children who also become dropouts.
The objectives of GMM are to prepare more students for college through high school graduation, readying them for the workforce, establishing support networks between community organizations, businesses and the schools to better student success and create opportunities, both school-based and community-based, which help inspire kids to graduate.
GMM keeps gaining momentum with 65 percent of Montana students attending a school, which already has a GMM initiative in place or is currently in the process of launching one.
School Counselor, Jodi Morgan, explained the money from grants through the GMM program has helped bring in the Harlem Ambassadors to the school for a community event, as well as start an after school tutoring center for the kids.
The initiative has kids sign a pledge card, which states they will graduate from high school, and puts a purpose behind their graduation.
Ninety-five percent of students signed the pledge cards, which Morgan explained is one more way to encourage them to get to that final destination of graduation.
“If we can reach just one kid and get them to graduate from high school, I think it’s worth it,” said Morgan.
Morgan said the school had put in for another grant through Graduation Matters, hoping to put on another fun event for the kids, and to help continue the after school-tutoring program.
The presentation focused on community service organizations having a role in Graduation Matters by having leadership academies, career fairs and establishing workplace-mentoring programs.
Morgan stated a career fair would be something the school is interested in as well as a work program, where kids could intern at a business for a period of their day.
“They would learn those skills they need for having a job,” said Morgan.
GMM also focuses on other, larger issues running through legislation.
“Graduation Matters is really a large umbrella that incorporates a lot of initiatives that are currently going through legislation right now,” said Slater.
Currently schools in Montana do not receive funding for students who are 19 years of age.
“A lot of things can happen in a person’s life where they get off track for a year,” said Slater. “We currently accept most kids that are going to graduate by 19. We have a school policy for that but we don’t receive any funding for them.”
Slater would like to see the continued funding through the age of 19, sending out a message that graduation is important enough.
All of Montana’s bordering states fund kids through the age of 21.
Slater stated that although this only affects about five percent of the kids attending high school, it’s still an important percentage.
The point of the program is the more kids that graduate, the better they will be.
“Well the options for somebody without a degree are greatly reduced,” said Slater. “Even the military doesn’t even want people with GEDs anymore, they want a high school diploma. A lot of the options have changed.”