Thread: Dropouts cost Texas $31B

LULAC - Who has the highest drop out rate in Texas?

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/dailyedition.html

Dropouts cost Texas $31B
Austin Business Journal - 2:36 PM CST Thursday

Texas' economy would benefit from an additional $31 billion in wages if high school students throughout the state graduated on time, according to a report by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

The nonprofit organization bases its projections, in part, on U.S. Census Bureau data revealing that the average annual income for a high school dropout in 2004 was about $9,000 less than a high school graduate.


If every student in Texas graduated from high school then these students would benefit from higher overall earnings potential throughout the course of their lifetime, officials with the Alliance argue. This would, in turn, benefit the state and nation with increased levels of consumer spending and higher tax receipts.

Furthermore, Alliance officials argue that dropouts drain state and federal coffers through the cost of taxpayer-supported social programs.

The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, D.C.-based policy research and advocacy group that works to ensure children become high school graduates.

"Although there has been a very slight increase in high school graduation rates, the pace of improvement is glacial compared with the growing and urgent need to ensure all of our students are prepared for success in the 21st Century," Alliance President Bob Wise says. "As Congress prepares to renew the No Child Left Behind law this year, it must address the continuing hemorrhage of wages and taxes resulting from each class of high school dropouts."

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Note, these are the illegal aliens that actually stepped foot in a school. They can't count the ones that have never gone to school. Also, note that this "all foreign born" and not just Hispanics. The numbers may actually be much higher for Hispanics. This is a trick Pew uses to avoid negative data about Hispanics, they release numbers about the entire immigrant population.

From the Pew Hispanic center
11.1.2005

The Higher Drop-Out Rate of Foreign-Born Teens
The Role of Schooling Abroad
by Rick Fry

Press Release

Other Resources
Foreign-born youths are significant contributors to the nation's teen school dropout population. Only 8 percent of the nation's teens are foreign born, but nearly 25 percent of teen school dropouts were born outside the United States, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of data from the 2000 U.S. Census.

Many of these foreign-born school dropouts–nearly 40 percent–are recent arrivals to this country...

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http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senat ... 40703a.htm

...the National Dropout Prevention Center and the Intercultural Development Research Association. "High school dropouts are four times as likely to be unemployed as college graduates. High school graduates earn on average $7000 more annually than dropouts. Each year, dropouts cost Texas in excess of $488 billion.

I'd say that there are a lot of assumptions that go into such a claim. A good portion of those who drop out are just no damned good and will never be anything but a burden, and most of the rest are illegal aliens who must relocate with their parents either for an annual trip back to Mexico or to stay a step ahead of the law.

Other Resources
Foreign-born youths are significant contributors to the nation's teen school dropout population. Only 8 percent of the nation's teens are foreign born, but nearly 25 percent of teen school dropouts were born outside the United States, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of data from the 2000 U.S. Census.

Many of these foreign-born school dropouts–nearly 40 percent–are recent arrivals to this country...

HOT DAMN! Then I say..........INCREASE THE ILLEGALS! What the hell. Open the flood gates and let's see if we can increase that 40% "recent arrivals" to 60% of the drop outs.

This is wonderful! Not only will we have created an entirely new, massive group of welfare participants that will last for generations.........we'll have done the seemingly impossible and will have created a brand spanking new 21st century Slavery system without the balls and chains!! These Slaves won't have the desire to 'run' from the master cause they'll be getting everything they need to exist nicely from cradle to grave and even be allowed to roam free!!

How ingenious is that?

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