10,431

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in skills, according to young people's abilities.

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Our nation has been very much concerned for

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the past five years or so with the rate of dropout of

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students from high school. Maryland has been concerned

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along with all the other States .

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Research indicates that the dropout rate has

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been influenced very likely by not having enough equal

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educational opportunities, but I would like to hasten to

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add that all of these dropouts , all of them, were capable

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of further training if we had been able to give them the

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opportunity to develop their own abilities.

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Many of these dropouts are persons of average

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ability.

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Wouldn't it be better to help those young people

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than have them panic, drop out of school and take some

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unskilled job because they think that is just the best bet?

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Other research studies indicate that in the

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State of Maryland, anywheres from 5 to 10 per cent of our

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high school graduates would like to go on for further

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education and cannot attend because of financial reasons.

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THE CHAIRMAN: You have three-quarters of a