We all pay price for dropout rate

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Updated: January 9, 2012 9:14AM

The abysmal high school dropout rates of Latino and African American students come periodically to light when a report is published or during an election season. After a while, however, most people forget about it.

I’ve covered Chicago as a reporter for almost 20 years, and every now and then, a new study comes along that presents the dropout rate among minority students as an emergency situation with catastrophic consequences for minority communities.

The problem is not only the great number of dropouts and their dismal prospects, but also the prospects for Chicago and Illinois if a large segment of the population has no future.

So I find it refreshing that the focus of the latest report of this sort examines not only the individual tragedies of not completing high school, but also looks at the drain on city and state resources. Reducing the droput rate would lower the costs of some enormously expensive social problems and, quite simply, be good for city and state finances.

The numbers are shocking. In Chicago, according to the report prepared by Northeastern University in Boston, 30 percent of Latino males age 19 to 24 do not have a high school education. Among African-American males, the dropout rate is even worse — 27 percent. Some 42,000 droputs in that age group live in Chicago, well over half of them being in jail or unemployed.

The report, titled “High School Dropouts in Chicago and Illinois: The Growing Labor Market, Income, Civic, Social and Fiscal Costs of Dropping Out of High School,” was commissioned by the Chicago Alternatives School Network, a Chicago nonprofit that supports schools that re-enroll students.

On Wednesday, some 300 education, civic and community leaders attended a summit to discuss the report. Among them were heavy hitters like Chicago Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinckle, and Gery Chico, who heads the Illinois State Board of Education. The presence of such major players was a good sign.

High school droputs earn only half the money of those who have a high school diploma, meaning they contribute far less in the way of taxes, yet they cost society considerably more. According to the report, that net cost — taxes paid subtracted from the costs of services — works out to $71,000 over a lifetime.

About one-third of high school dropouts in Illinois receive food stamps, compared with 17.3 percent of high school graduates. Dropouts in 2010 made up more than half of the people age 18 to 34 who were in prison. And nearly 29 percent of African-American males who don’t have a high school diplima are in jail.

I know this is much easier said than done, but all of us — business people, parents, families and community groups — had better figure out a way to graduate more students from high school and re-enroll the most promising young people who have already dropped out.

Or we will continue to pay a heavy price.

We are looking at an assembly line of crime.