Graduation

A little more than half of Mississippi's male students graduate from high school on time.

"It's simply repugnant that we allow this to happen in Mississippi," said former Secretary of State Dick Molpus, who helped start the organization Parents for Public Schools. "In too many cases, dropouts equal no marketable skills, which equal crime as a way to make a living.

"I'm astounded the victims of crime aren't up in arms about keeping kids in school. We can't hire enough police or build enough jail cells to protect our people if we have a huge percentage of our population not equipped to make an honest living."

The latest numbers show 60 percent of white male students graduate on time with black male students even lower at 47 percent. That's much worse than neighboring Arkansas, where 74 percent of white male students graduate on time compared with 62 percent of black male students.