I just read [that] 7,000 high-school students drop out of school every day, at a cost to society of $209,000 per student over their lifetimes.

"Between 20 percent and 42 percent of graduates require some remedial coursework before moving on to college-level work, and 60 percent of manufacturers say recent entry-level hires were unprepared for the work they were hired to do. The question facing educators and business leaders is: What can be done to reverse this trend?"

Well, I know one thing we can do.

Let's put some responsibility back on the student.

See, what we seem to forget is that it's all there for the taking. If you want an education in this country, you can have it. The information, textbooks, workbooks, journals, reference books, videos, technology and lab equipment are available, to one degree or another, in every single school. …

Even the poorest schools are full of information, and people who are ready, willing, and able--aching, actually--to teach a student who wants to learn. It makes teachers nearly weep with frustration to see bright, capable, talented children slide lazily along, refusing to partake of the bounty of knowledge that is offered to them. …

I'm fed up with the steady drumbeat from partisan groups that continuously, relentlessly, incorrectly, and nauseatingly bash the public school system in America , as if educators are solely to blame for low test scores. …Whether it's an allowance or a grade, kids need to know that they have to work for what they want.

Education reformers rant that the public school system needs to "improve outcomes." Well, how about improving input? How about sending us some students who are eager to learn so that we don't have to force-feed them? It's about time we tell the kids in this country: get your butts to school, sit down, be quiet, do your work, quit whining, and make your parents proud.

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Source: The Flint Journal Commentary by Kelly Flynn, May 24, 2008