Temple: An issue too urgent for us to ignore

The fate of our kids impacts all of us

Published May 14, 2005 at midnight

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My parents always told me that education is the one thing that nobody can take away from me.

Education was seen as priceless.

So what is the cost of a lack of education?

That is the question the people of Denver must ask today. Because too many of our children are going without.

On Monday we begin what I hope is a five-day wake-up call to the city. And when I say city, I don't mean just the citizens of Denver. The fate of the children of the inner city matters to all of us living in the metro area. We can't afford to let any lives slip away. The cost is too high.

To borrow the words of the late playwright Arthur Miller: "Attention, attention must be paid."

Attention, attention must be paid to the lives of the young people of Denver.

They are important. Their lives matter. That has been the message of our series, "The North Side," by columnist Tina Griego and photographer Maria Avila. That is the message of the related series that begins Monday, "Early Exit: Denver's Graduation Gap."

Both special reporting efforts got their start in conversations with the community, in questions we asked about what matters most. We saw the sea change in the ethnic complexion of Denver and knew that to accurately cover the city we had to do a better job reporting on the exploding Hispanic population. So we talked to people and asked what was most important to them.

The answer almost invariably was the same: education. Education means opportunity. Education means a chance for their children to succeed.

And there lay the rub: So many Hispanic children aren't completing high school. They aren't getting a basic education. And they're not alone.

Why is less obvious.

So I went to Denver Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Wartgow last summer and talked to him about what I thought we needed to do as a newspaper to help answer that question.

Today his column appears next to mine. Although we may be uneasy partners, we are both committed to getting to the bottom of the question: What is happening to our kids?

Once we can agree on the answer, we might be able to agree on what we should do about it.

Jerry helped open the doors of North High School to us. It hasn't been easy for those involved. I appreciate their courage, their commitment to letting the public see the truth about life in a high school where almost 90 percent of the students are Hispanic and nearly three-quarters are poor.

Jerry also took an even more difficult step. He opened the district's books — actually its computer files — sharing a wealth of data with the Rocky Mountain News and Professor Alan Davis of the University of Colorado at Denver.

Our analysis of that data is at the heart of "Early Exit."

It is a kick in the gut.

Remember, I have two kids in Denver Public Schools, including a son graduating this year. My oldest daughter graduated two years ago. The district has been good to me. I have met many teachers and administrators I've admired. I've seen parent and community volunteers who put me to shame.

But the numbers don't lie. They are what they are. And it's best for us to face the truth if we're ever going to improve the situation.

We tracked all 5,633 students who began eighth grade in DPS classrooms in the fall of 1999.

I don't want to give away the story, but let me share just a few numbers.

One-third, or 1,884 of those students, graduated from DPS.

For Hispanics, who made up 50 percent of the class, the number was worse. Of the original 2,786 who began eighth grade, 759 — or 27 percent — graduated from DPS.

About 20 percent of the class transferred out. So what happened to the rest? We'll tell you.

I warn you. This series is disturbing.

It would be easy to blame the kids. But it's not the kids who are the problem.

We are the adults. We're responsible. We can look for excuses, or we can find solutions.

I think it's time to find solutions.

And we can do that only by working together, as a community. This isn't the job of the school district alone.

What we won't be able to do after this series is deny the problem or say the public doesn't understand.

You'll have the facts next week.

The question is what you'll do with them.

I hope you'll act.

We've got to do something.

As North High School French teacher Bobby Fischer told Tina recently, "I know we can't keep doing the same thing. Or we can, and we can keep losing kids."

The latter choice isn't acceptable.

On that, I'm sure we all agree.

John Temple can be reached at editor@RockyMountainNews.com or by mail at 100 Gene Amole Way, Denver, CO 80204.

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