Dealing with Dropouts

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Recommended: Negative impacts of dropping out of school

Instead of allowing dropouts to rely on government assistance, high schools should implement volunteer programs to keep students in school. Teenagers dropping out of high school affect every single person in America. However, most people do not understand why they should personally concern themselves with one of the most stereotyped subsets of the United States’ population. One unacknowledged fact about dropouts is that they will, over the course of their lifetime, cost the United States government $72,000 while high school graduates will benefit the government $315,000 (Emery). This affects every person in America. Taxpayers and their families are forced to pay for the services high school dropouts need. Such services include food stamps, welfare, incarceration costs, and even healthcare. Since high school dropouts are expected to make drastically less money than their classmates who did graduate, they need to rely on the aforementioned services at some point in their life; some high school dropouts rely on government assistance throughout their entire life. High school dropouts are also 63 times more likely to become incarcerated than college graduates (Breslow). This also puts a huge strain on taxpayers and their families with the cost to run prisons rising each year. To counteract this massive loss of profit and potential, the reasons behind dropping out must be addressed. One of the main reasons teenagers are forced to drop out of high school is to counteract family costs. Family costs include regular bills such as mortgages, rent, car insurance, car payments, gas, grocery bills, and utilities. Family costs also include unscheduled expenses such as medical bills, school field trips, and holiday celebrations. Teenagers must s... ... middle of paper ... ...ved by more students graduating from high school will counteract these costs. Works Cited Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. “Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings”. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Print. Breslow, Jason M. "By the Numbers: Dropping out of High School." pbs.org. PBS, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 May 2014. Emery, C. E. "Appraising High School Dropouts' Cost to Society." The Providence Journal, Jan 16 2011. ProQuest. Web. 7 May 2014. "Fast Facts: Dropout Rates." National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences, 2013. Web. 7 May 2014. Guzman-Lopez, Adolfo. "California High School Graduation Rate Creeps up to 78 Percent." Southern California Public Radio. KPCC, 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 May 2014. Levine, Peter. “The Case for Service”. Barnet and Bedau 636-640. Print.

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