KENTUCKY DROPOUT RATE Debate On Ky. Dropout Age Continues In 2013 Session
Reported by: Associated Press
Web Producer: Heath Harrison
Reported: Feb. 10, 2013 3:48 PM EST
Updated: Feb. 10, 2013 3:54 PM EST
Eyewitness News Photo
Bowling Green, Warren County
, Kentucky
The debate on Kentucky's law that allows 16-year-olds to drop out of high school with parental permission is coming up again in this year's legislative session.
Gov. Steve Beshear and his wife, Jane, along with a bevy of education officials, said lawmakers should support a bill that would gradually raise the legal dropout age from 16 to 18. It has failed in past sessions.
Education experts said 6,000 to 7,000 students drop out of high school annually in the state.
One way to keep students from dropping out has been to create alternative schools. At Lighthouse Academy in Bowling Green, teenage mother Taylor Blair said she is now on track to graduate on time though she wanted to drop out from her regular school at 16.
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