Hub youth activists head south for social justice forum

Toussaint Losier

Local youth workers and their supporters packed the 711 Bistro & Sushi Bar last Friday, partying until the early morning and transforming one of Copley Square’s trendier nightspots into a community space.

While dancing to the latest hip-hop and reggae music, these activists also helped to raise over $1,000 to send more than 100 Boston-area youth to the first-ever United States Social Forum.

The forum, which started yesterday in Atlanta, and runs through July 1, brings together grassroots social justice organizations. Over the long weekend, groups working on a broad range of issues — from immigrants’ rights to women’s reproductive rights, environmental racism to anti-war activism, and tenant organizing to criminal justice reform — will all come together.

Full story

Dropout rate down statewide, up in Boston

Brian Mickelson

While high school dropout rates declined slightly statewide during the last school year, Boston’s dropout rate was about three times the state average, the city’s highest in 15 years.

The alarming statistics were detailed in a state Department of Education report released last week that provides annual dropout data to education leaders for developing and strengthening dropout prevention programs in the state.

During the 2005-06 school year, 3.3 percent of Massachusetts students in grades nine through 12 dropped out of school. Boston’s rate, on the other hand, climbed two percentage points to 9.9 percent.

Full story