The Graduation for All Act of 2009

Strengthening Our Schools, Our Community and Our Future Competitiveness

The high school dropout crisis poses one of the greatest threats to our nation’s economic growth and competitiveness. Each day 7,000 U.S. students drop out of high school. More than half of all students who drop out are from the so-called “dropout factories” – the 2,000 high schools with dropout rates above 40 percent. Many of these students come from a struggling middle school. President Obama has challenged Congress and the American people to take action by asking every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or training. This will require addressing our nation’s dropout crisis and dramatically improving graduation rates.

The Graduation for All Act (H.R. 4122) will make a down-payment on our future competitiveness by helping our lowest-performing middle and high schools improve student achievement, increase graduation rates, and promote college enrollment. Specifically, the legislation would: