Attention Governors, State Education Directors, Superintendents, School Boards, Principals and community leaders:
What is Brain Drain? Most often ‘brain drain’ is defined as ‘the human capital flight’ or the loss of skilled intellectual and technical labor through the movement of such labor to more favorable geographic, economic or professional environments.
But a more serious and more damaging ‘brain drain’ is taking place within our schools on a daily basis and the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention last week validates this more serious ‘brain drain’ is taking place.
According to The White House Blog:
Every day, thousands of kids, teens, and young adults around the country are bullied. Estimates are that nearly one-third of all school aged children are bullied each school year – upwards of 13 million students. Students involved in bullying are more likely to have challenges in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have health and mental health issues. If we fail to address bullying we put ourselves at a disadvantage for increasing academic achievement and making sure all of our students are college and career ready.
‘Brain drain’ in our schools is a serious problem that affects our nation’s future and affects our communities who must pick up the pieces.
Lessons learned show there are ‘no brainer’ solutions for helping to eliminate ‘brain drain’ in schools, but school leaders and community leaders must be willing to get rid of their status quo beliefs and take advantage of innovative solutions….are you willing?