Today’s News and Observer editorial on the dropout rate deserves a read, as it manages to be both great and awful at the same time. Here is one of many passages of note:

Ditto for North Carolina, where education involves considerable expense to state and local taxpayers. The increase in dropouts comes despite efforts by legislators, for more than a decade, to increase teacher pay, for instance. This year’s state budget includes $37.5 million to shrink class sizes. The state has spent millions on pre-school initiatives to help lower-income youngsters — the ones more likely to give up on education later in life — be prepared for kindergarten. The continuing dismal dropout rates signals that something isn’t right about the way schools are connecting with kids. They also point up failures of parental and community support.

You mean to tell me that hefty increases in teacher pay (50 percent over the last decade) and years of super duper programs did not lower the dropout rate? Do tell!

Of course, the author of this fine piece does not have the courage to mention the super duper “dropout prevention grants” recently rewarded by the General Assembly’s “dropout prevention committee.”

Here are a few of my favorite grant recipients:

? Edenton-Chowan Schools will receive $150,000 to hire a full-time Life Coach Coordinator and three part-time Life Coaches.

? North Carolina A&T State University will receive $150,000 to teach step dancing in Guilford County schools.

? Communities in Schools of Wilkes County will receive nearly $30,000 for its ?Girl Power? and ?Wise Guys? programs.

? Students at the John T. Hoggard High School in New Hanover County, a school with a 86.7 percent graduation rate, will read ?The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens,? among other program activities related to their $105,000 grant.

? Futures for Kids of Wake County will receive $150,000 to connect students to ?real people? and companies. By the way, Wake County had a 79.3 percent graduation rate, one of the highest in the state, but received four grants totaling nearly $450,000.

? The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will use its $126,651 grant to train 15 teachers how to improve relationships and instructional strategies for ?boys with color? in Pre-K through third grade. Results from the program ? the dropout status of students ? will not be available for at least eight years and will likely be lost by the time those children reach middle school (or the next grade).