Well, shucks. Just when somebody says Florida isn’t Mississippi after all, somebody else brings up our pathetic graduation rates again.

The latest to do so: the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University and the Alternative Schools Network, which figures in this report released today that 423,529 young Floridians between the ages of 16 and 24 were high school dropouts in 2007.

That’s 20.1 percent of all folks in that age group. The national rate: 16 percent.

The report apparently doesn’t say whether the rates are improving. (We couldn’t locate it at the link above, but we’re told it should be up any minute.)

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*