We’ve heard time after time the impact of high school dropouts and the cost it has on American society as a whole. In fact, most studies and organizations prefer to focus on graduation rates instead of the percentage of students who drop out of high school (talk about a PR move). A new study by the Alliance for Excellent Educationsays that almost 600,000 students dropped out of high school in America’s 50 largest cities in 2008 alone. According to the study, if those students actually graduated, they could’ve earned $4.1 billion in additional wages and increased the tax revenue coming in to local and state taxes.
This isn’t really news. BoardBuzz and the Center for Public Education have reported on this before. But this is the first time that there are some hard data and dollar amounts to go with the numbers. Large districts and CUBE (Council of Urban Boards of Education) districts have faced this issue for years, and have been working to try and slow the trend of lower graduation rates by getting more parental involvement, using local business leaders, and philanthropy to help locally, all in an effort to demonstrate that the higher the graduation rate, the better situation for the entire city. This seems like common sense, but it’s often overlooked.
So now that we have some numbers to back up the case, perhaps America needs to hear the reality and face the fact that high school graduation rates impact everyone. While we debate war, health, and more, let’s not forget the opportunity we have to help America’s students and economy.
