This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 26, 2009 - Thirty years ago, Keith Snyder quit high school, became a mover and began earning "more money than my dad made." But loading and unloading trucks turned out to be sporadic work, so Snyder became a journeyman laborer. Now that construction work is less available, he's working toward his GED and hopes to eventually train for a career in radiology.
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Snyder, 46, is one of many dropouts who have returned to the classroom to prepare for the GED, or high-school equivalency exam. More than 12,000 Missourians took the exam last year, and the number is expected to rise this year, driven by the demand among displaced workers, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The agency is doubling the number of testing dates because many of the state's 27 GED testing centers are seeing more displaced workers. Snyder is enrolled in a GED preparation program that is part of the Rockwood School District and is offered in a Maryville University satellite office in Fenton.
During a telephone interview with reporters on Wednesday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised people like Snyder for returning to earn diplomas and GEDs. This move should be regarded as "a starting point not an ending point," he said, because dropouts now needed a minimum of a year of college or some other training to find good jobs.
Snyder knows that now, and Ryan Parvin, 19, is learning as much. Reality hit Parvin last year after his father was laid off from a construction job and has yet to find work. Parvin got a second jolt of reality when he sought to join the Marine Corps and was told he'd need a minimum of a GED.
"I made a bad decision to drop out about two years ago," Parvin says. "It's really hard finding a job because a lot more places are requiring a high school diploma."
Dropouts like Parvin are considered a drag on Missouri's economy. They are said to earn about $10,000 less a year than high school grads. According to some studies, these lower earnings translate into lost income-tax revenue of between $158 million to $177 million a year, at least during good economic times in Missouri.
Of the 12,207 candidates who took the GED last year, 9,700 or nearly 80 percent passed the five-part exam, which covers math, science, social studies, literature, along with writing skills and grammar. Bill Poteet, head of GED testing for DESE, says opening new testing sites will give candidates a chance to earn their GEDs as quickly as possible. The state program helps students by assessing their knowledge and skills to determine how much preparation they might need to pass the exam.
The state offers on-site and online training for those needing intense help for the test. A DVD-based program is available for those needing only to brush up on their skills.
Linda Techner, who teaches adult education in the Rockwood District, says she's seeing a growing number of people who started working when high school diplomas weren't required.
"The people we're talking about have worked 20 or 30 years, had good jobs and made a good living," she says.
The layoffs at Chrysler displaced autoworkers as well as workers in industries that supplied parts to the Chrysler plant. These developments explain the rise in adults enrolling in her classes in the Fenton area, she says.
"I had a woman who worked for a supplier of dashboards for Chrysler come in to prepare for her GED. She'd lost her job. I'd say this is the largest group being served. These are middle-class workers who are being hurt. These are people who have done nothing wrong, worked hard, did what they were supposed to do, and have now lost their jobs."
Some of the students face self-confidence issues, Techner says, because earning a GED these days is more demanding, requiring knowledge of algebra, geometry and other course material that might not have been mandatory for earning a high school diploma years ago.
"The first thing you have to do is work with their fear," Techner says. "Their main fear is fear of failure."
