Published Thursday, June 26, 2008

When a student

Editorial

The high school Class of 2008 recently graduated. The Class of 2008 began their high school careers back during the 2004-2005 school year. Of those students who began high school in Georgia four years ago, only 58.1 percent earned a diploma this year. Nearly 60,000 who should have graduated this year dropped out of high school during the past four years.

In a report on the costs of high school dropouts compiled by the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C., Georgia was one of five states (plus District of Columbia) whose graduation rate for the Class of 2008 was less than 60 percent. The other low graduation rate states were Nevada, 45.4 percent; New Mexico, 54.1 percent; Louisiana, 54.7 percent; South Carolina, 55.6 percent; and District of Columbia, 57.6 percent.

On the other end of the graduation spectrum, the top states were New Jersey, 83.3 percent; Iowa, 82.8 percent; Wisconsin, 80.5 percent; Pennsylvania, 80.4 percent; and Vermont, 80.2 percent.

Those graduation numbers are important because they have tremendous economic impact.

The report said the average income for a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299. That's nearly $10,000 lower than the average pay of a high school graduate who earned $26,933 in 2005. The report goes on to say someone with an associate college degree earned $36,645 while someone with a bachelor's degree averaged $52.671 in 2005.

In addition to the economic impact on the pocketbooks of high school dropouts, the nation's economy suffers when students drop out of school because of decreased purchasing power, lower tax receipts and lower worker productivity.

The report cites Princeton University research that shows that each high school dropout -- over the course of a lifetime -- will cost the nation about $260,000. The reports said unless dropout rates improve, during the next decade 12 million students will drop out of school, resulting in a loss to the nation of $3 trillion.

That's a crisis of enormous proportions. As a nation, we must solve our dropout problem. In addition, as we have stated before, we must improve our adult education programs. We cannot forget these millions who already lack a high school education. The Class of 2008 nationally included 1.2 million dropouts. They deserve another chance.