California's Black Student High School Dropout Rate: 37%

“More than a third of California’s African American public high school students dropped out before graduation day,” according to the just-released 2009 data. (The actual number: 37%.) The state’s superintendent of schools blamed this crazily outrageous number on cuts to schools; that, in part, “drastic cuts to summer school have prevented students from catching up on credits during the break.” Overall, about 1 in 5 students drop out over four years.