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Anyone who has been a high school freshman has probably heard some variation of the following at a school assembly: Look to your left and then look to your right — chances are, one of those students won't make it to graduation. Will you be the one who doesn't make it?

The answer should be no.

But the answer was yes for 21,380 Arizona students in 2005-06, the latest figures available from the state Department of Education. Excluding kids who were ill, incarcerated or who died, 6.4 percent of high school students didn't make it to the end of the 2005-06 academic year. The figure does not include students who left but came back to school.

Arizona's dropout rate has earned it distinctions no state wants. Arizona ranked the worst in the nation in the 2005 Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Kids Count" report, which was based on data from prior years. The latest report shows improvement, to 36th in the nation.

The dropout rate is decreasing statewide. A decade ago, nearly 13 percent of high school students dropped out. Pima County's rate is just over 5 percent for 2005-06.

Arizona isn't exactly rocketing to the top of the charts, although the increase is good news for students and the state. It's just not good enough.

Keeping kids in school can be a tough job, especially when real-world obligations eclipse the more distant rewards of education and a high school diploma. An Arizona Department of Education analysis shows that economically disadvantaged students — those who qualify for federal free- or reduced-lunch programs — leave school at a higher rate than others.

According to an analysis from Arizona State University's Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, a disproportionately high number of Latinos, and particularly boys, drop out of school: Nationwide, of 100 Latino students who start elementary school, 54 girls and 51 boys will graduate from high school.

A teen who takes a fast-food job after dropping out likely isn't paid much, if any, less than a teen with a diploma. But the wage gap widens as the graduate moves on to better jobs and more money, while the kid who dropped out becomes an adult without a diploma and limited prospects.

Amphitheater Public Schools and the Tucson Unified School District have just announced a partnership with Youth Education Security Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by retired Tucson lawyer Lou Barsky.

The partnership, called First Job Project, is intended to help chip away at one reason students leave school — they need to work to help support their families.

The pilot program will pay 100 Rincon High students and 75 Amphitheater High students $25 each week as an incentive to stay in school, beginning this semester. Students in the program will sign a contract promising that they'll attend all classes every day, earn passing grades and stay out of trouble.

"Repeatedly, studies have shown that dropping out and poverty are inextricably linked. We have to do something different that clearly addresses poverty," Barsky said in a press release.

This program sounds like a good start, but we must be realistic and acknowledge that $100 a month, while welcome, probably isn't going to cover the kind of family bills that would force a student out of the classroom and into a full-time job. But something is better than nothing.

Most who drop out say they regret it. Helping kids who are being pulled away from school by poverty hold on and earn a diploma is at least a start.