Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland’s city government doesn’t technically have anything to do with ensuring teenagers graduate from high school, or go on to get a college degree.

But that didn’t stop the city’s top elected official from bringing business leaders and a high-ranking federal official to an education summit. Rob Manning has more.

Portland has a four-year high school graduation rate below 60 percent.

It’s a familiar sounding number to Greg Darneider. He’s spent decades in Chicago, trying to keep teenagers in high school, and into college.

At the Portland summit, he said schools alone can’t fix the problem.

Greg Darneider: “This is far beyond the capacity of our K-12 systems to manage on their own, and that every player in our communities need to be ready to act on this.”

Now, Darneider is an advisor to federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan. He says connecting kids with adult mentors and employers is critical to keeping kids in school.

To that end, Mayor Sam Adams rolled out his youth job plans. He plans to spend nearly $280,000 for 150 summer interns. He wants local employers to hire another 150.

Sam Adams: “We piloted this last year, at the city of Portland, and let me tell you, those folks work very, very hard, so it is a good investment.” 

School advocates, like Dan Ryan with the Portland Schools Foundation appreciated this week’s education summit – because it puts the issue on the agenda, for business leaders.

Dan Ryan: “It’s time for Portlanders to be honest about the statistics – that we’re failing our youth, especially youth of color, and we have a long, long way to go.” 

One national estimate indicates the Portland area may add seven-thousand high school dropouts every year.

A stimulus-backed jobs’ program from last summer reached only 830 young people.

Portland parent Mike Rosen is worried that the number of jobs available will be smaller this summer.

Mike Rosen: “There are problems with stimulus money not being available, and it’s probably going to have an impact on whether some businesses can do it.”

It costs $3000 to train, pay and supervise a summer intern. But city officials say they’re already hearing from interested business leaders.