An international epidemic

The United States is not alone in the battle against the dropout epidemic. Canada generally does better than its neighbor to the south when it comes to getting students to graduation day, but in many places, the dropout rate is unacceptably high.

For instance: A shade under 40 per cent of boys in Quebec drop out of high school in their teens, according to a great piece of reportage by Sean Gordon of The Globe and Mail.

In one Quebec school, Gordon reported, the dropout rate is close to 80 percent.