| Dropping Out: Why It Matters |
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| Monday, 10 August 2009 09:04 |
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Lower Rates of Employment In 2008 and among out-of-school youths aged 16-24, only 45.7% of high school dropouts were employed, compared to 68.1% of high school graduates, 78.8% of those with some college education and 86.7% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Less Income High school dropouts are estimated to earn $400,000 less during a working lifetime (aged 18-64) than high school graduates. The average annual income of adults 16-64 in 2006-2007 was $11,031 for workers with no high school diploma, $23,059 with a high school diploma, $50,863 with a Bachelor’s degree and $76,091 for those holding and advanced degree.
The National Center for Health Statistics reports that students who do not finish high school reported worse health outcomes, higher rates of uninsurance, and reduced access to medical care compared to their peers who completed high school.
Teens who have dropped out of school are more likely to become pregnant and have a child than their peers who stay in school. It is a vicious cycle. Children of teen mothers tend to do worse in school and are 50% more likely to repeat a grade than children born to older parents. Two-thirds of children of teen mothers earn a high school diploma, compared to 81% of children of older parents.
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JPIC Corner August 2009
“If the dropout rate remains the same for the next 10 years, the result will be a loss to the nation of $3 trillion. The government would reap $45 billion in extra tax revenues and lower costs for public health, crime and welfare payments if the number of high school dropouts among 20-year olds in the US today, who number more than 700,000 individuals, were cut in half.“
Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle the Dropout Crisis, p. 12
Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle the Dropout Crisis, p. 12