L.A.'s High School Drop Out Rate

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The dropout issue has been at the center of local school reform discussions since last March, when a study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University calculated that only 45% of students were graduating in four years from Los Angeles schools. The rate was even lower for Latino students, and much higher for white and Asian American students. African Americans were close to the districtwide average.

The school district cried foul, saying its figures showed that roughly 70% were graduating, a figure that has since risen. The district uses a different formula to calculate its graduation rate, one that the Harvard researchers and other critics say is deeply flawed.

It's amazing that one can't get the truth from Los Angeles officials.So,what's the reason to fund a school system that 55% can't graduate in 4 years? Obviously public education doesn't work in Los Angeles.