High school graduation rates are the highest they’ve been in forty
years. But let’s face it – not everyone will graduate. And few high
school dropouts will turn out like celebrity chef, Bobby Flay, who quit
school when he was 17.
The recent Diplomas Count report determined that the high school
graduation rate is nearly 75%, the highest rate America has seen since
1973. Don’t get me wrong – that’s great news! But that still means 25%
of students won’t graduate. That’s roughly one million students a year.
Almost 5,500 high school students drop out on any given school day. And
just last year, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and
Development ranked the U.S. as No. 21 in high school completion, meaning
we graduate a smaller percentage of students than Israel, Iceland,
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic, among
others. And all of these numbers are a tell-tale sign of the state of
education in America.
It’s estimated that there are 20 million kids between the ages of 16
and 21 who are enrolled in some form of school. Sadly, 1.8 million kids
in the same age bracket failed to earn a high school diploma and 66% of
those dropouts are unemployed. That’s 1.2 million young adults without
jobs. And high school graduates earn almost $10,000 more per year than
those who don’t finish school. The loss of income and lack of education
is certain to impact these individuals, but what are the impacts on
society? You might want to brace yourself for the answer…
Dropouts Aren’t Only Costing Themselves
It’s estimated that taxpayers will cover between $320 and $350
billion a year for expenses such as lost wages, health care, welfare,
taxable income and incarceration costs. High school dropouts make up
close to half of the heads of households on welfare. And nearly half of
the mothers participating in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) are high school dropouts, while 27% of single mothers without
diplomas receive benefits from TANF. One study estimates that if all of
the high school dropouts receiving welfare benefits were instead high
school graduates, the cost of welfare in America would fall by almost $2
billion. Another study found that people without diplomas “constitute
62 percent of white inmates, 69 percent of black inmates, and 78 percent
of Hispanic inmates” in our prison systems. Yet another study reported
that a 1% increase in high school graduation rates would save around
$1.4 billion in incarceration costs. This lack of education is
disturbing enough considering the skills needed to establish careers and
to be successful, or even self-proficient. But the burden taxpayers
bear on behalf of those without diplomas? It’s alarming, to say the
least, and likely even preventable.
Education Success Equals a Nation’s Success
In 2010, President Obama promised to fix the rate of dropouts in
America saying, “We know that the success of every American will be tied
more closely than ever before to the level of education that they
achieve. The jobs will go to the people with the knowledge and the
skills to do them. It’s that simple.” He went on to say, “In this kind
of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of
school means not only giving up on your future, but it’s also giving up
on your family’s future and giving up on your country’s future.” The
stats are out: the future of our country is influenced by
dropouts, so what’s the president and his administration prepared to do
in order to take the burden off of taxpayers while securing the future
of our nation?
We have the power to alleviate these issues for our country. We need
to literally nip them in the bud – let’s prevent the problems before we
ever have to fix them: improve our education system, improve our
country. Cut and dry.
In pursuit of the truth,The Plain Truth
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