Break on through

“I look at the difference between people with a low income and a high income, and the only difference [I see]is an education.” Those are not the words of a political activist (at least not yet), nor of a politician (again, you never know…). That is Kelly Rangel, an eighth grader (for 2 more days!) at Kealing Middle School in East Austin. Joining her on Sunday were Barry Aidman and Jenifer Rivera from Breakthrough, of which Kelly is a participant.

Breakthrough, it could be said, is one of Austin’s responses to dismal drop out rates at several AISD high schools. The idea is to come alongside motivated students who would be the first in their family to ever graduate from college, and to remove every obstacle that would prevent them from attaining that goal. It may seem obvious that low income students do not perform as well as their high income counterparts, but a quick look at the numbers is sobering. From the Breakthough website:

• At Breakthrough students’ neighborhood high schools–Lanier, Johnston, Reagan, & Travis–four-year graduation rates range from 35-45%
  Source: Texas Education Agency AEIS reports, 2003.
• Only 6% of students from the nation’s poorest families, those making less than $35,000 a year, earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24
  Source: U.S. Department of Education, “Answers in the Toolbox,” 1999.
• Low-income students are seven times less likely to go to college than affluent students
  Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Access to Postsecondary Education for 1992 High School Graduates.”

The causes of this disparity are countless, but the fact remains that it creates a never ending cycle of poverty. As Texas Senator Kirk Watson has said, “Education is the most socially responsible way to address economic development.”

And Breakthrough is addressing education. They begin working with students going into the 7thgrade, enrolling them into an intensive, 6-week summer program at UT. College and high school students from all over the country arrive in Austin to work with some of the brightest yet most under-served kids in this city. The Breakthrough staff stick with the kids throughout the school year as well, all the while affirming them as young men and women who can do anything they put their mind to. Unfortunately, a lot of students are not hearing that. At a recent Breakthrough event, APD Police Chief Art Acevedo asked a group of students if any of them had ever heard that they weren’t good enough before. Every single hand went up.

That makes me mad.

Like the students they serve, Breakthrough has a fair share of obstacles to face as well. For one thing, 60 percent of their students’ parents do not speak English at home. There are also transportation issues in existence, a fact that Jenifer attested to. “There are many, many miles on my car,” she said without even a hint of resentment. But all of these obstacles they have navigated effectively, compiling a donor list that reads more like a nationwide nonprofit’s would. On top of that, in just a few days their very first group of students, those that started with them in the 7th grade or their “pioneers” as they call them, will graduate. When we spoke a few weeks ago, 84 percent were set to graduate (I suspect more in fact will). Furthermore, 75 percent of those students had already picked colleges that they would attend. I’m no statistician, but that’s a pretty big jump from 35%.

Kelly may be but on the brink of high school, and as of yet has not decided which college will get to have her as a student (Yale or Harvard, she thinks), but she displays a passion and a drive that would rival the fiercest competitor on “The Apprentice,” and the kind of determination that could get Ron Paul elected president. None of us have any doubt that she will be the first from her family to graduate from high school, nor will she be the last.

Listen to this interview HERE!