Discuss Dropout Prevention/Recovery

Area school officials and community leaders recently met on the East Central Community College campus in Decatur to discuss the alarming drop-out rate among Mississippi high school students and how to combat the problem. Gene Davis, ECCC dean of adult and continuing education, was among program speakers and noted in his remarks that one out of every four adults in Mississippi lack a high school diploma or GED. ECCC has entered into a partnership with Newton County, Newton County Municipal and Union school systems as part of Mississippi’s dropout prevention and dropout recovery effort. East Central offers free ABE/GED classes on the Decatur campus and at various locations throughout the College’s five-county district. ECCC and the state’s other 14 community and junior colleges are sharing a special $1.5 million appropriation from the Mississippi Legislature to help find solutions to the increasing number of high school dropouts. East Central’s share of the appropriation is $100,000.