High School Dropouts
The High Cost For Them and For Us
The rate of high school dropouts in this country is staggering. After decades of hiding frighteningly low graduation rates behind misleading, inaccurate data from schools, it’s shocking to learn that roughly 7,000 students are dropping out of school every day.
Statistics
Every school year, we have approximately 1 ¼ million high school dropouts with more than half that number coming from minority groups. Another alarming statistic is the relatively small number of schools responsible for more than half of these dropouts. Approximately 14% of the nation’s high schools, about 2,000, consistently have 60% or fewer seniors than they enroll as freshman, just three years earlier. These schools have been dubbed "drop out factories."
Ninth Grade -- The Critical Year
This is not a case of students getting to their senior year and quitting school. Over a third of all dropouts leave school in the ninth grade. The success or failure of a child in the ninth grade is a more reliable predictor of graduation than most demographic studies or previous academic performance. In cities with high drop out rates, as many as 40% of all ninth graders will repeat the grade. Of those who do repeat, only 10-15% eventually graduate.
Personal Costs
High school dropouts face less than promising futures and if they have babies, those children are more likely to also quit school. Dropouts typically have little or no health care coverage. They make significantly less money than peers who graduated, on average $260,000 less over the course of their lifetime. Unemployment rates are higher for dropouts and they’re more likely to be on government aid.
Countries around the world also suffer the problem of high school dropouts, but nowhere is it more costly than in the United States. Over the lifetime of the dropouts from 2006, the US will spend over 17 billion dollars in Medicaid and other expenses related to no health insurance. The dropouts from 2007 will cost, over the course of their lives, almost 330 billion dollars in lost earnings, productivity, and taxes.
Economic Impact
Why do the dropout rates continue to climb? Socio-economic issues play a large role. The US Dept of Education says one of the biggest factors for drop out rates is the income level of the family, with children from low-income households 6 times likelier to drop out of high school than those who come from homes with high incomes.
If we could raise the rate of graduation for male students by just 5%, the combined amount of savings and revenue from decreased crime related costs would reach nearly 8 billion dollars per year. If the graduation rate of minorities is increased to match the rates of white students by the year 2020, we could add over 310 billion dollars of personal income to our economy.
Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education says there will be an estimated 1.2 million students who won’t graduate in 2008. The cost for these students not graduating is expected to exceed 300 billion dollars over the course of their lives. He maintains the best economic stimulus for this country is a high school diploma. “More students graduating may lengthen the commencement line, but it also shortens the unemployment line,” he says.
Want to help a young person you care about?
Click here - How to Achieve
Return from High School Dropouts to Study Skills Tips Home
|
