On Monday evening, over 500 people packed the auditorium at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in New Bedford, Massachusetts to ask the Mayor and members of the School Committee to join with community leaders from PICO affiliate United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Massachusetts (UIA) in tackling the city's high dropout and low college attendance rates.

New Bedford has one of the highest high school dropout rates in Massachusetts. Of the 1,000 students who enter New Bedford High School each year, only about 600 go on to graduate in four years. Of those who do graduate, less than 300 will go onto a four-year college.

At the event, UIA leaders requested that the Mayor and School Committee members sign a Community Education Compact, a covenant with UIA committing to achieve specific goals for the city's schools, including: increasing graduation rates to 80 percent and college attendance by 25 percent over five years; developing a comprehensive strategy for funding needed improvements; improving parent-school relationships; and developing an accountability plan to assure these goals are reached.

The four school committee members in attendance and the Mayor, who chairs the committee, pledged support for UIA's proposals and readily signed the Compact. UIA will be meeting with the incoming superintendent of schools to further develop strategies and reforms with the goal of having a plan in place by the fall.

United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Massachusetts is a member of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN) and an affiliate of the PICO National Network. To learn more about UIA, visit www.unitedinterfaithaction.org, or to learn more about MCAN, visit www.mcan-oltc.org

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