WASHINGTON — High-school dropouts are costing about $1.8 billion in lost tax revenue every year, education advocates said in a report released yesterday.
If states were to increase their graduation rates, state and federal lawmakers could be plugging their budgets with workers’ taxes instead of furloughing teachers, closing driver’s-license offices and cutting unemployment benefits.
“This has huge economic implications,” said John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy group that helped write the report.
That’s part of the reason Education Secretary Arne Duncan yesterday introduced a three-year, $15 million effort to put AmeriCorps members in 60 of the nation’s worst schools. About 650 AmeriCorps members are going to try to raise graduation rates, increase math and reading skills and prepare more students for college.
“Turning around our nation’s lowest-performing schools is challenging work that requires everyone to play a part — from teachers, administrators and counselors to business leaders, the philanthropic sector and community members,” Duncan said.
Increased graduation rates might be the most lasting way to turn around struggling budgets.
Some 24 state budgets are smaller than they were in 2008, and states are still clawing their way back to pre-recession levels, the National Association of State Budget Officers says.
Lawmakers in state capitols are making tough choices about whether to raise taxes to keep classroom lights on or to sell off state agencies to provide health care to seniors.
Nationally, a 90 percent graduation rate would yield $1.8 billion in local, state and federal taxes based on $5.3 billion in higher wages, the Alliance for Excellent Education says.
All told, the group sees a graduation rate at that level producing an additional $6.6 billion in economic growth.
The group reached those tallies by comparing the annual average earnings of a high-school dropout against those of a high-school graduate in each state and projecting over time. The calculations took into account the share of students who go on to college and projected workers’ tax rates based on training.
None of their projections took into account government costs for those who don’t finish high school, such as law enforcement, unemployment aid or job training.