By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis – A coalition of St. Louis politicians, churches, the NAACP and public school officials are beginning a new effort to get dropouts back into high school classrooms.
In the 2006-2007 school year, there were about 2,000 dropouts in the St. Louis public school district.
State representative Jamilah Nasheed said the new initiative is a recovery effort, as opposed to a preventative plan, which she said has not worked in the past.
"We take a list with those children's names," Nasheed said. "We knock on the doors of those homes. We ask to speak to little Johnny. If little Johnny's there we want to know why little Johnny's been out of school for two year and what we can do to help him. If he turns us back, guess what? We're coming back."
Nasheed says that in addition to door-to-door canvassing, the dropout recovery effort will feature a phone bank and motivational interviewing.