Report: High School Dropouts Cost Economy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.(AP) – An education advocacy group says high school dropouts cost the economy.

The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates New Mexico’s economy could have been 3.1 billion dollars richer in the future if all the state’s students who started high school in 2003 had graduated last spring.

The alliance’s report is based on estimates of what students who did not graduate could have earned over their lifetimes with more education.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the average annual income for a high school dropout in 2005 was nearly $10,000 less than that of a high school graduate.

The alliance argues that dropouts drain the economy by lowering tax revenues and increasing the cost of social programs.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)