High school dropout rates essay

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High Dropout Rates Negatively Affect Students and the Nation High School Dropouts. 2013. Lexile Measure: 1260L. COPYRIGHT 2013 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning Full Text:

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"The High Cost of High School Dropouts : What the Nation Pays For Inadequate High Schools," Alliance for Excellent Education , November 2011. Copyright © 2011 by Alliance for Excellent Education. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.

The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve education policy in America.

America pays dearly for its high school dropouts. When young people do not graduate from high school the economic impact is extensive. For the dropout , wages remain significantly lower throughout their lives. The country's overall economy is weakened by their diminished purchasing power. Socially, the consequences are also significant. High school graduates have a much more positive social prognosis—their health is better, they are less likely to commit crimes or utilize government assistance programs, and perhaps most importantly, they are able to raise a healthier and better-educated future generation of children. The cost of high school dropouts is immense and every effort should be made to change current trends.

Every school day, nearly 7,000 students become dropouts. Annually, that adds up to about 1.2 million students who will not graduate from high school with their peers as scheduled. Lacking a high school diploma, these individuals will be far more likely than graduates to spend their lives periodically unemployed, on government assistance, or cycling in and out of the prison system.

Most high school dropouts see the result of their decision to leave school very clearly in the slimness of their wallets. The average annual income for a high school dropout in 2009 was $19,540, compared to $27,380 for a high school graduate, a difference of $7,840. The impact on the country's economy is less visible, but cumulatively its effect is staggering.