High School Dropouts: How They Affect Taxpayers And The Economy

Over the next week, NPR's Claudio Sanchez will air a five-part series on the fiscal burden of America's high school dropouts.

In an overview of the series Sunday, Sanchez told NPR's Linda Wertheimer on Weekend Edition Sunday that dropouts cost taxpayers between $320 billion and $350 billion a year in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs, among others.

Not only are high school dropouts a cost to the economy, but a cost to themselves as well. Of the 3.8 million students that start high school this year, a quarter won't receive a diploma. Those who don't finish will earn $200,000 less than those who do over their lifetime, and $1 million less than a college graduate, Sanchez says.

Dropouts are not eligible for 90 percent of the jobs in our economy, and a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds in the U.S., contributing to a rising unemployment rate.

The biggest challenge in deriving solutions is states' individual data sets.

"The data right now is so unreliable, so useless because states essentially collect their own data and most of states don't really have a good way to come up with accurate estimates," Sanchez told Wertheimer. "And so if states ever get a handle on the data, I think it'll go a long ways toward really solving this problem because people will know what we're up against."

NPR is discussing the issue through the lens of five people across the country. See the full schedule and profiles of the subjects at NPR.

Comments

[Ben Dixon]

12:27 AM on 07/28/2011

Here's a solution, if you don't graduate from high school then you don't get access to stuff like welfare, social security, medicar or medicaid.

[Virginia DeLong]

11:17 PM on 07/27/2011

There are a lot of reasons that students drop out and it is not just b/c students are "lazy". Unfortunately, the traditional high school model that we have in this country is just not for everyone. It makes me so angry that in this country everyone is supposed to fit into a cookie cutter mold and when they don't they are discarded and left to fend for themselves. I have all too often seen students treated just like this. It must be hard for students who come from families that do not value education at all to learn how to value education themselves. I work in Adult Education as well as a regular public school system and I see things from both sides. I see that some students need an alternate setting, like Adult Education. I have gotten to see my students at Adult Education finally become successful and get their hs diploma. They are so proud and usually happy b/c for once someone didn't give up on them. Unfortunately Adult Education continues to be underfunded and stigmatized from the top down. It seems counterproductive that we don't put more money into Adult Education where the money could be best used, instead of letting high school drop outs cost us so much money in other ways.

[quillsinister]

12:09 AM on 07/27/2011

I love the version of this article's title that was on the link. "High School Dropouts: A Burden to Themselves, Taxpayers, Economy."

Go ahead and make them feel worse about themselves, why don't you! I mean, don't leave out their parents, their girlfriends, et al. Maybe the next article can be called: "High School Dropouts: It Would Be Better if They All Just Killed Themselves."

:-)

[Rangergirl]

06:31 PM on 07/26/2011

Time to work on keeping kids in school.. Vocational type for those who don't excell in other areas. It is not time to gut the Schools all over the Country by laying off the teaches. We need to figure out a way to do better for the kids.

[GirlFriday123]

04:48 PM on 07/26/2011

Is this really news? It certainly isn't new news.

[neolow]

03:40 PM on 07/26/2011

OK let's blame the unemployment rate and the stagnant economy on high school drop outs. The high school drop out rate has been an issue for years. Now, suddenly it costs the American taxpayers billions of dollars a year. No one wants to address the issue. An investment in America's youth would pay off in the long run, but that's not going to happen with today's Congress. Drop outs will just have to be profitable to the for-profit prison system. Which would pay politicians to oppose any program helping drop outs.

[cdecisneros]

02:36 PM on 07/26/2011

Maybe when a kid wants to drop out they should show him 1 million dollars and ask them if they want to give that up.

[Kris W]

02:48 AM on 07/27/2011

Maybe we should hold teachers, school board directors, vice-principals, principals and school superintendents responsible for creating a hostile learning environment? If the gender of the drop out's was reversed people like you would be demanding society spend trillions to "help the girls". But because it is boy's who are being discriminated against bigots like you adopt a "tough luck die in a ditch" mentality.

[cdecisneros]

08:58 AM on 07/27/2011

I meant to show the 1,000,000 to any child that wishes to drop out not just boys. I am sorry I did not make that clearer. And I agree with your first statement.

[Ayla87]

04:17 PM on 07/27/2011

What if the kid isn't motivated by money?

[cdecisneros]

08:24 PM on 07/27/2011

The usually leave school because they get a job that they think pays them a lot of money but if someone shows them a bigger payoff down the road they may stay in school.

[SportySardar]

02:03 PM on 07/26/2011

What would happen if all these students graduated high school and moved on to college? We can't seem to find good jobs for existing graduates. Try finding a job with a middle class salary (over 50K). The only place they could find jobs would be India or China. But why pay the cost of an American education for a job in India or China. Why not study in India and pay 1/10th of the cost? I don't have the answers. I'm just thinking aloud here.

[MichaelRCooke]

12:58 PM on 07/26/2011

Let's start with some basic facts. a 100 IQ is average, about half of all Americans rank a 2 digit IQ. It does not take many points less than 100 to effectively have great difficulty meeting grade 12 high school standards in real ways.

And to make matters worse, rather than have a child not graduate (a dark stain on the reputation of any school) most schools will use their power to make a failing student leave the system before 12th grade. And this child, for whom high school standards are difficult to meet - school stops being freely available - no school wants him. Community College is a possibility, but this takes money, and the standards of any College are meant to surpass those of High School- and this is intimidating to a failing student. The path of least resistance we create for these people, is life without a diploma!

It's simple, a civilization should work for all the people that are of that civilization. Do we have a space for under educated people to be able to provide for families? The answer seems to be know.

How do we justify that? Is this not within our power? Do we hate people that aren't smart? Is this justice?

If we want a world where only the strong survive, we don't have to do ANYTHING! That's the default of nature! Can't we have a system that works better than barbarism?

[Kris W]

02:43 AM on 07/27/2011

This was/is being done intentionally. After Vietnam the military became scared of a situation where it needed more troops but just didn't have the available men. Democratic Economist's since the 80's(and still do) complained about a lack of "domestic cheap labor".

So the Military Industrial Complex and Big Business helped feminist's re-engineer the educational system to be as sexist and hostile towards boy's and young men as possible.

We keep skirting around the problem, the problem is the educational system and American society is blatantly sexist against males. When the AAUW lied through their teeth about the "girl crisis" American's demanded billions to help girls.

Now that America's boy's are in a state of "hell" what is the average American sentiment? Beat us harder. This is going to blow up in everyone's faces. Because why should we defend a country that a) doesn't benefit us and b) actively seeks to oppress us in order to empower the rich and women?

[MichaelRCooke]

10:25 AM on 07/27/2011

It is true that girls, generally, are better suited to how schools work and do better in school than boys. But this has only become crystal clear for the past two decades or so, and the steps to address what is missing in the education of boys, it is not clear.

It is not true that this is properly understood or premeditated. The reality is that school, with its regiment of timed classes - it is intentionally designed to groom better factory workers, perhaps soldiers.

What is very real is the fact that the sons and daughters of America's wealthy classes, these are not problems that affect them. Their boys get tutors and special help if they need it - not merely a high school education - this children of privilege are born entitled to Ivy League college educations.

The reason your complaints are against feminists and women is because you have been fooled. It is not women that hold men back - it is class structure. The upper class has always taken advantage of racism and sexism to keep the heat off THEM.

Nothing is more terrifying to the elite than poor people attending Ivy league schools on merit scholarships - so many the elite child may not qualify to attend!

[happyblackman]

09:58 AM on 07/26/2011

I taught on the Navajo Reservation for three years and education was a tough sell. During my first year there, a mother let her son drop out of school and was going to let him move to a border town to work at McDonalds, even though me and several other teachers tried to counsel him against it. I will never forget the look on their faces, it was pure joy. They were acting like he was going to college or something. He got fired from his job and sat around and did nothing for two years, and when he tried to come back to school, he was too old. Hopefully he went back to get his GED.

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:31 AM on 07/26/2011

I favor computer-based education, as I have expressed elsewhere on HuffPo on various threads. I also favor the idea of having an open discussion on what opportunities are genuinely available to even successful graduates. What's out there, in the way of scholarships? If you're an 'A' or a 'B' student, what do you really stand to gain by it? What if you flunk out? What if 'the system' can't really do anything for you in the tenth grade, because they lost you in the 5th or 6th grade, and nobody really grilled you on your skills and learning up to that point to make sure you had a solid grasp on fundamentals? What about the 'bell curve' stuff, where they take norms and averages and do the social promotion, instead of sending Junior back to repeat a grade if he/(she?) didn't honestly make the grade? We don't all learn at the same rate, and trying to teach someone an advanced subject when they've failed the fundamentals is an exercise with a checkered success rate, at best.   Computers don't get tired, and if you need the rest of your natural life to master that algebra, they can do that.

[happyblackman]

10:17 AM on 07/26/2011

I am a big advocate of computer based-education, primarily because it allows the learner to be proactive and control their pace of learning.

[Eric Mann]

10:46 AM on 07/26/2011

Computer-based learning also breeds lack of socialization. One of the hardest things to teach a new employee is how to work with others. In fact, the Dept. of Labor once cited an inability to work with others as one of the main reasons people lose their jobs. If Junior has spent his whole life in front of a computer (let alone the health issues) then he does not know how to interact with other people. That makes for a bad employee.
You can get your individualized education that you are looking for much better in classes of 10-15 students. We just have to, as a society, decide to not just spend more on schools, but more on the STUDENTS. That means each student comes with money enough that 10-15 of them will pay for a teacher and then some.
I use computer programs as A tool, but would never even think to use them as the ONLY tool at my disposal.

[lrobb]

10:54 AM on 07/26/2011

Any curriculum which does not combine individual learning with structured collaborative group learning is doomed to produce sub-standard results.

Computers most definately have their place when it comes to rote learning. (Why do we no longer make students memorize the multiplication tables? Big mistake!) They have no place except for a technical assist when assigning a problem for team of students to solve or a project they must complete.

[umbrarchist]

01:37 PM on 07/26/2011

What is the difference between socialization and PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONING?

That is what school is really for. You are supposed to learn things to please the teacher and compete with other students. Even when what you are expected to learn is boring useless garbage. Why wasn't a National Recommended Reading List created or even suggested decades ago before cheap computers came along?

Why isn't double-entry accounting mandatory instead of algebra? Isn't that really more important over most people's lives than algebra? Oh yeah, the worker/consumers who are supposed to go into debt aren't supposed to know things that are really important.

How about some free reading with this great technology?

Cost of Living by Sheckley Robert
http://www.onread.com/book/Cost-of-Living-20266/

Subversive by Reynolds Mack
http://www.onread.com/book/Subversive-13972/

[mamacat]

09:14 AM on 07/26/2011

While I am completely in favor of getting a high school education, in my opinion, the answer is not to force kids to stay in high school.

If they really don't want to be there then let them leave, and let the learning environment improve for those who do want to be there.

[Kelly Jade]

09:10 AM on 07/26/2011

My maternal grandparents were from rural Tennesse. Very rural. As in, my grandma died before she was able to go through the process of getting a birth certificate when she moved to Chicago because no one had one where she was from (home births on the farm were the norm). She got to 6th grade my grandpa made it to 3rd. He moved to Chicago and got a job in a factory before sending for my grandma, mom and aunts. He made something of himself that he was proud of (he could support his family on his own in the city) but this is no longer possible. When I hear about kids dropping out of high school I shudder because, half the time, they just don't realize how much harder they just made their lives in the long run

[lrobb]

07:58 AM on 07/26/2011

We could eliminate most poverty in one generation if we had the political will. No, I don't mean with some Liberal feel-good program.

One of the greatest threats to our national security is the dumbing-down of our population. Ignorance will defeat us and send us to second-tier status faster than any Chinese strategist could hope. It is time we took a war on poverty seriously.

1. De-criminalize drugs. We have lost that war. Let's put money into educating and re-habilitating users.

2. Change our military focus to one of strategic homeland defense. Let the rest of the world be its own policeman for a change. If they need our help they should pay full freight for it.

3. Get serious about re-patriating anyone here illegally who uses government services. Manditory jail time for anyone involved in hiring illegals. Proof of citizenship or legal resident status required for health care or school registration. Ditto for any police contact. Pass legislation eliminating anchor babies. Put the savings back into education. (If someone is here ilelgally and is paying more in taxes than they are using in services why would we ever want them to leave?)

4. Free or reduced cost birth control for everyone. Period. Anyone who receives government services unrelated to advanced age or disability must be on manditory birth control. If churches don't like it, they can provide the charity required.

5. Fully fund tutoring and mentoring for every single at-risk child.

[Eric Mann]

10:52 AM on 07/26/2011

You have a few problems with your ideas, but other than these, they sound like good ones.
#2-Sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Additionally, your philosophy would let humanitarian problems that we CAN fix with a little military intervention (say, Darfur) go on indefinitely. I am actually a real hawk when it comes to opportunities to stop genocide.

#3 Police contact and citizenship. This is a Constitutional issue. Power over citizenship has been and always will be a Federal power. That means granting AND enforcing citizenship has to be done by Federal authorities. That is what is says in the Constitution. So you cannot grant police-who are deputized by a municipality or a state-any power to enforce citizenship.
"Anchor babies"- again, this is a Constitutional issue. Anyone born on our soil is a US citizen, plain and simple. It says so in the Constitution. You cannot just pass a law, you have to amend the Constitution in order to change that. That is a much higher bar to get over, and personally I think it would never happen. So the real issue one can address is not that.

[lrobb]

11:38 AM on 07/26/2011

A good defense is always the best offense, but it must be prioritized. A well educated population capable of meeting the challenges of a global economy is at the top of my list of good defenses.

Provided the States are simply obeying Federal statutes regarding immigration, there should be no problem. Ideally, the federal government would step up to the enforcement plate. The necessary laws are already on the books. Having the Justice Department fire the full force of their legal arsenal at sanctuary cities would be a good start.

Actually, the anchor baby issue has never been definitively decided by the Supreme Court. In a challenge to the 14th Amendment in 1884--Elk v, Wilkins--the Court determined children are subject to the jurisdiction of their native countries. We need definitive case law, and the way to get it is by enacting legislation denying citizenship to anchor babies. If the law is upheld by the Supreme Court, no Constitutional Amendment would be necessary.

[terribyte]

01:50 AM on 07/26/2011

At first I thought this headline pretty much summed it up, but... " Of the 3.8 million students that start high school this year, a quarter won't receive a diploma."
That's some seriously depressing news.

I suppose the wise thing to do is to divert school funding into the military budget.
That's 950,000 potential recruits within just one school year.