AT&T Inc. will donate 100 million U.S. dollars over four years to programs aimed at boosting U.S. high-school graduation rates, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson announced Thursday.

    "Far too many students are dropping out of high school in this country - one every 26 seconds - creating a serious threat to our nation's global economic leadership," Stephenson said in a statement ahead of a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago on Thursday.

    AT&T will devote the money to schools and nonprofit organizations and fund research and community "dropout prevention summits" run by America's Promise Alliance, a coalition of nonprofits and corporations that was founded by Colin Powell.

    AT&T will also give 100,000 students the opportunity to "shadow" AT&T employees on the job, "to give them a firsthand look at the skills they will need to succeed," the company said. The cost of the 400,000 AT&T employee hours to be devoted to this program are not included in the 100 million dollar pledge.

    The job shadowing program will be administered by Junior Achievement, a member of the National Job Shadow Coalition.

    Stephenson cited a recent study by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda, Maryland, nonprofit organization, that found nearly one-third of U.S. high school students drop out before graduating.

    The study has been criticized as exaggerating the problem. The Department of Education's study of census data said 9 percent of 16- to 24-year olds were not in school and lacked a high-school diploma in 2005. That number is down from 15 percent in 1972.     

    (Agencies)

 

 

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