Cities in Crisis - Facts and Potential
Future of High School Dropouts
In 17 of the nation’s 50 largest cities, less than half of the students who entered
high school in 2003 ended up graduating. In Detroit, which has the lowest graduation rate
of the top 50 cities, not even one in four students finished high school. Full Report Here Cities in Crisis
Over a lifetime, an 18-year-old who does not complete high school earns about $260,000
less than an individual with a high school diploma, and contributes about $60,000 less in
federal and state income taxes. The combined income and tax losses aggregated over one
cohort of 18-year-olds who do not complete high school is about $192 billion, or 1.6
percent of the gross domestic product. (Cecilia Elena Rouse, economist, Princeton
University)
Individuals with a high school diploma live longer, have better indicators of general
health, and are less likely to use publicly financed health-insurance programs than high
school dropouts. If the 600,000 18-year-olds who failed to graduate in 2004 had advanced
one grade, it would save about $2.3 billion in publicly financed medical care, aggregated
over a lifetime. (Peter Muennig, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University)
Adults who lack a high school diploma are at greater risk of being on public assistance.
If all those receiving assistance who are high school dropouts instead had a high school
diploma, the result would be a total cost savings for federal welfare spending, food
stamps, and public housing of $7.9 billion to $10.8 billion a year. (Jane Waldfogel et
al., Columbia University School of Social Work)
High school dropouts are far more likely to commit crimes and be incarcerated than those
with more education. A 1 percent increase in the high school completion rate of men ages
20 to 60 would save the United States as much as $1.4 billion a year in reduced costs from
crime incurred by victims and society at large. (Enrico Moretti, economist, University of
California, Berkeley) |
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