Tag: chris fitzgerald

Elephants dancing in skirts, bears riding tricycles and lions leaping through flaming hoops could become distant memories if a bill U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is co-sponsoring gains traction in Washington.

The number-one factor fueling high school dropouts across the country is pregnancy and parenthood, a problem Colorado Congressman Jared Polis hopes to address by reintroducing his Pregnant and Parenting Students Access to Education Act. He pitched for the bill Thursday at Denver's Florence Crittenton High School, a unique facility that provides the kind of "wraparound services" like daycare and counseling that make it possible for young parents to stay in school. Polis says that if the country is going to address the serious social and economic problems that come of dropouts, then providing support for parenting students is the best way to begin. The bill comes with a $100 million price tag, however, which almost certainly guarantees it will never make it through the deficit-focused program-slashing 112th Congress.