News & Press

National Association of Street Schools President and Founder Tom Tillapaugh, a frequent national speaker on urban education, was called upon as a key panelist in two recent White House summits.

The April 30 briefing “The Dropout Epidemic in the U.S. and Cross-Sector Solutions” was co-hosted by The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and America’s Promise Alliance (www.americaspromise.org) to explore the scope of America’s dropout crisis and discuss ways to help reverse this “silent epidemic” in partnership with community-based nonprofits and faith-based organizations. White House Faith-Based Director Jay Hein and America’s Promise Alliance Chairwoman Alma Powell (pictured with Tom, at right), lead the briefing.

Based upon his personal 23-year career of serving high-risk and vulnerable youth in Denver, Tillapaugh was a unique panelist, as he offered innovations on student retention and dropout prevention used daily by NASS as a part of the Street School Model. Through NASS, Tillapaugh and his staff equip a network of 43+ schools around the country to design and operate high-quality faith-based schools for those students at-risk of educational failure.

“What will it take to increase the graduation rate for at-risk youth?” submitted Tillapaugh. “Sacrificial intervention in the lives of these kids by loving, caring adults to the point of extreme inconvenience. We can go on all day about best practices, but there is no substitute for just physically being with these kids, demonstrating your love by your presence and interest in their lives.”

About 7,000 students drop out of high school per day, most of whom are minority and low-income students. March statistics from the U.S. Labor Department show that the 8.2 percent jobless rate for Americans with less than a high school education is 60% higher than the overall jobless rate.

The April 24 White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools highlighted the need to preserve the critically important educational alternatives for urban students attending chronically underperforming schools. In his 2008 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced this summit as an opportunity to help increase awareness of the challenges faced by low-income students in the inner cities and address the positive role of faith-based schools in meeting the needs of those students.

President Bush opened the summit, which was attended by educators, policymakers and community leaders, asserting the bright future for children found in faith-based schools. “In neighborhoods where some people say children simply can’t learn, the faith-based schools are proving the nay-sayers wrong. These schools provide a good, solid academic foundation for children. They also help children understand the importance of discipline and character.”