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High School Dropouts: In what way do they affect the economy the MOST?. Emmanuel Mgbemena 5/5/14 5 th Period. Introduction/Purpose.
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High School Dropouts: In what way do they affect the economy the MOST? Emmanuel Mgbemena 5/5/14 5th Period
Introduction/Purpose Throughout my schooling career and in the back of my mind I always wanted to know, how do high school dropouts affect the economy? Studies show that 1 million students who start high school each year do not make it to graduation. These students often struggle with poverty, abuse, or neglect in their homes. With that being said, these students, after dropping out of high school, will most likely turn to crime, selling drugs, living pay check to pay check with a minimum wage paying job, in jail or dead. We know it will negatively affect the economy because the more dropouts, the higher the chance they will need government assistance in the later years of their life and also the costs of incarceration will play a factor as well. Now the question remains, what way do they affect the economy the most? I believe the dropouts affect the costs of incarceration the most because more and more penitentiaries have been created lately.
Background Info: According to a study done back in April of this year, 3,030,000 high school students drop out annually. Each day about 8,300 students drop out. Lastly, 75% of US crimes are committed by a high school dropout. Dropouts' earnings are $200,000 less than someone with a high school diploma and $1 million less than someone with a college degree over a lifetime. Without a high school diploma, dropouts aren't eligible for 90% of jobs. However, the data may not seem surprising because there aren't a lot of options for them to choose from once they decide to give up on school. We know that these dropouts will have a negative impact on the economy. This varies from incarceration costs to Medicaid costs. Yet the question would still remain, which of these have the biggest impact on the economy?
Hypothesis I believe the dropouts affect the costs of incarceration the most because more and more penitentiaries have been created lately.
Methodology • Get as many resources together as possible (Books, Encyclopedia, Different websites, etc.) • Record the different percentages and statistics of dropouts in the recent years. • Research possible ways that high school drop outs have affected the economy. • Compare your finings and how they have affected the economy. • Analyze the data and see which has had the most of an effect. • Record your findings.
2013 Dropout Statistics • There are 3,030,000 high school dropouts annually • 80% of the incarcerated population is high school population • Costs taxpayers an average of $292,000 over a lifetime • Dropouts bring in just $20,241 annually, which is $10,000 less than high school graduates and over $36,000 less than a person holding a bachelor's degree. • 1 in 5 students does not graduate high school with their peers • If we reach the Grad Nation goal, the additional graduates from a single class will increase GDP by an estimated $6.6 billion annually.
Conclusion In a nut shell, after researching, I came to a conclusion that the lost income tax affects the economy the most. My hypothesis, the incarceration costs, came in a close second. However, no matter the order, we see that high school dropouts cost America tons of money that could be used elsewhere. This holds our economy back because this money could be used to attack and aid plenty of other problems. Just in 2011, if all the dropouts from that class had graduated, the nation would benefit from approximately $154 billion in income of their working lifetimes.
Conclusion (cont.) However, since this wasn't the case, it cost taxpayers $292,000 over the course of their lives (Matthew Lynch: "High School Dropout Rate: Causes and Cost"). Aside from the money aspect, more educated citizens, in general, would help America grow even more as a nation because new ideas will be brought up. Nonetheless, this cannot be done unless we find a way to keep students in school. Mathew Lynch, in the article "High School Dropout Rate: Causes and Cost", proposes what if we used the $300k taxpayers pay over a life time for these dropouts and put it into their k-12 learning upfront. Would that make a difference? Who knows? Well, I guess that's just another story for another day.