Why the United States Should Raise the High School Dropout Age

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2005 only 68.8% of high school age kids in the United States completed high school. Many of those that did not graduate dropped out of school in their sophomore or junior year when they turned 16. A dropout age of 18, an increase from the current age of 16, would drastically raise the numbers of high schoolers who graduate verses those who do not.

High dropout rates are not just hurting people that don't finish high school, they are affecting whole generations at a time. Young people who drop out of high school are unlikely to have the minimum skills and credentials needed to function in today's highly complex and competitive work environment. According to the United States' Census Bureau high school dropouts are more than 50 times as likely as high school graduates to be unemployed. They also are at an increased risk of poverty and dependence on government assistance. This means that their children, the next generation of Americans, will be born into poverty, drastically limiting their future access to valuable resources. Many children born into poverty never have a chance to earn a high school diploma. High school dropouts start a viscous circle that is hard to break. High dropout rates are hurting people, and not just those that don't complete high school.

Also, high school dropouts make less money, lack essential skills and are more likely to be poverty stricken than those who graduate high school says a study by the United States Census Bureau. Not only does this hurt those who do not graduate from high school, it negatively affects the entire nation.

As evidenced by a United States Census Bureau study high school dropouts are 50 times as likely as high school graduates to be dependant on government assistance. On average there is over 100 million spent annually on domestic government aid programs according to Harvard Law School. This is money that could go towards school funding, the arts, and could fund many other valuable domestic programs.

Another way in which high dropout rates affect everyone is an increased rate of crime precipitated by high school dropouts. Crime costs the community in many ways. There is the cost of police forces, the cost of housing criminals in prisons and the cost of property damage and medical care. As confirmed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics it costs about $70,000 dollars every year to house each prisoner. Multiply that number by the 1.57 million people in United States penitentiaries and you get a very large product. This money could, again, go toward valuable programs to help educate people and keep them out of the nation's prisons.

High school dropouts are hurting the entire country in more ways than one. By passing this bill, we can help to ensure that the United States is no longer harmfully impacted by high dropout rates.

The United States needs to do something about the lack of high schoolers graduating. Changing the high school dropout age to 18 could help to solve many of the education and career problems that Americans are facing today.