High School students are dropping out at an alarming rate

January 10, 2011 • Danielle Grover '14  
Filed under Editorial, Opinion

Every year, 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States. This means that a student drops out every twenty six seconds or six thousand students drop out a day. Hispanics are twice as likely to drop out as African Americans.

America’s high school students are dropping out of school at an unbelievable rate. More than fifty percent of the students that attend city schools drop out before they graduate high school.

            The drop-out rates in the cities are so high because kids are getting caught up in selling drugs and other bad things. Eventually, they become so into it that they just stop caring and drop out. However, what kids don’t realize is they’re jeopardizing their futures.

            In local towns, such as West Deptford, the drop-out rates are much lower. They are around only 1.5 percent, which is nothing compared to the cities drop-out rates. High school drop-out rates are much lower in small towns because there aren’t as many people. This means less people use and sells drugs and less people do bad things.

                        Americans and Asian Americans are the least likely to drop out of high school. America’s high school graduate rate ranks 19^th in the world. About forty years ago, America was ranked 1^st in the world.

            Recent high school drop-outs will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate in their life time. They will earn $800,000 less than a college graduate in their lives. The drop out problem in America is likely to increase substantially until 2020 unless major improvements are made.

            Most of the people who drop out of high school end up going back to get their GED by the time they’re in their late twenties, early thirties. Forty-seven percent of drop-outs said they dropped out because their classes weren’t interesting; Forty-three percent said they missed too many days to catch up; 69 percent said they weren’t motivated enough; 35 percent said they were failing; 32 percent said they left to get a job; 25 percent said they left to become parents, and 22 percent said they left to take care of a relative.

            The dropout rates are getting higher and higher every day, and more and more people are making a huge mistake. Dropping out of high school is a huge mistake.

Tags:

 Email This Post        Print This Post