The high cost of dropping out

Mississippi has a drop-out problem...but then again, we all do. While Mississippi's graduation rate from high school is 64.1%, the nation's is about 70%. 

State officials in Mississippi are set on reducing their drop-out rate by 50% in five years. 

As a recent article from Hattiesburg, Mississippi points out:

The economic reality of an undereducated class is staggering.

Dropouts from the Class of 2007 will cost Mississippi almost $3.9 billion in lost wages and taxes over their lifetime, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization based in Washington.

Dropouts cost Mississippi $458 million each year, Bounds said. The number comes from money spent on social services, including medical care and prison. It also figures in lost revenue in taxes based on what all those dropouts might have made in income had they completed high school.

More than 13,000 students drop out every year in Mississippi, according to the Mississippi Department of Education.

The dropout rate for black and Hispanic students is close to 50 percent nationwide, according to the America's Promise Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit collaborative chaired by Alma Powell and founded by her husband, Gen.Colin Powell. In Mississippi, about 57 percent of blacks graduate compared to 71 percent of whites.

Dropouts earn about $9,200 less per year than high school graduates.

Read more.

Here are some basic resources to learn more about reducing dropouts: 

1. Alliance for Excellent Education
   
2. America's Promise Alliance
   
3. The Silent Epidemic report from the Gates Foundation
4. National Dropout Prevention Center