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Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
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A high school dropout's midlife hardships
- 07-28-2011
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By Claudio Sanchez/NPR
Today, the people who seem to be hurting the most in our sputtering economy are dropouts in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Despite their work experience, some can't even apply for a new job without proof that they completed high school. One man has thought a lot about his education and the decisions he made as a teenager. Kenny Buchanan, 44, has lived in the coal-rich mountains of Schuylkill County, Pa., all his life. He's happy to have work after being jobless for more than a year. Buchanan recently found work at an aluminum manufacturing plant. "I'm a processor," he says. "We make aluminum for propane tanks, runways — aluminum runways for the U.S. Air Force." It's not a permanent job yet. Buchanan is still on probation. It's the eighth job he's had in the last five years. (more...)
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