Graduate to Elevate
The current findings on high school dropout rates and their effect on quality of life and social issues cannot be ignored. Consider that:
*Every 9 seconds there’s a dropout in America
*A 1% increase in high school graduation would save $1.4 billion in incarceration costs
*High school dropouts earn $500,000 less over their lifetime
*The death rate is 2.5 times higher for those with fewer than 12 years of education than those with 13 or more years
Not surprisingly, the data on dropout rates suggests a correlation between poverty, crime and education.
*Dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested and more than 8 times as likely to be incarcerated
*75% of state prison population and 60% of Federal are dropouts
*A one year increase in average education would reduce arrest rates by 11%
*Children from low income families are 7 times more likely to dropout than children from higher income families
*Increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points would prevent over 3,000 murders and nearly 175,000 aggravated assaults in America each year
One solution to breaking the self-perpetuating cycle of poverty, crime and education is to enroll young children in high quality pre-kindergarten classes. A study conducted by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids says, “Evidence from two long-term evaluations of the effects of pre-kindergarten programs show that participating in high-quality pre-kindergarten increases high school graduation rates by as much as 44 percent”.
By increasing educational opportunities we stand a better chance of reducing crime and elevating the income levels of future generations to insure that the link between high dropout rates, poverty and crime can be broken.