Every high-school dropout costs Minnesota taxpayers $908.96 per year or $415,986 over lifetime of the high school dropout. Despite progress being made with improving high school graduation rates, one-fourth of students in high school will not graduate with their class.
Add to this 97 million high-skilled employees are needed by American businesses and only 45 million Americans have the skills needed. The jobs market is directed away from low-skill jobs. “By 2020, three-quarters of the job market will be high-skill and only 26 percent will be low-skill.” The impact of high school dropouts is not just felt by that student or the local community. Nationwide, this creates a workforce where the significant population of the available workforce are without the education needed to compete1.
Early childhood development is one of the best tools we have as a community to combat the problems that come with students dropping out of high school. Studies have shown that young children are capable of learning and have an interest in learning that should be encouraged. For at risk children, whose risk factors make them more likely to fail in school, intervention through early childhood education increases their chances for success in school2. By the time a child reaches middle school or high school, it is often too late to provide the important support needed to avoid high school dropout. Studies have shown that, with students who had early school education, more students were employed at age 19 and fewer were on welfare3.
But we still have many students who did not have those opportunities. We need them to succeed as well. Education is a cycle that is part of our culture, our communities, and our economy. An educated workforce fills a need employers have. People with higher education are less likely to need assistance, which provides relief to government budgets that are stretched thin.
When talk comes to budget discussions and things to cut, it is too easy to not spend the money now, when it could make the most difference. Instead we delay action and end up paying more down the road. And the cycle continues.
Until we become the change that is needed. Live United. Participate in the community and help make it a place where all have the opportunity to succeed.
What changes can you see that would benefit the education of our future work force?
1Across the Great Divide – Perspectives of CEOs and College Presidents on America’s Higher Education and Skills Gap March
http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/across-the-great-divide.pdf
2National Research Council (2001) Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309068363
3National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University
http://www.dropoutprevention.org/effective-strategies/early-childhood-education
Beginning in January 2010, the Dolly Parton 
Amy Dickinson will be the featured speaker at the 5th Annual Power of the Purse luncheon, June 15, 2010.
