Linking the Dropout Crisis to the Economy in Alabama

Did you know that in Alabama students who are over 16 can legally dropout of high school? Perhaps that is one of the reasons The Southern Education Foundation reports that “Alabama now ranks 42nd in the nation in per capita income and nearly two-thirds of the state’s income gap with the nation is entirely due to the state’s low levels of education primarily fueled by the state’s high school dropout problems.” Last year the SEF published High School Dropouts: Alabama’s Number One Education and Economic Problem. This shocking report found the high school dropout rate in Alabama in 2006-2007 was 39 percent and it links the dropout problem to economic problems over the last thirty years. The report found that the consequences of having an undereducated population are dire indeed.

According to the report, dropouts lose the opportunity to gain the skills they need to earn livable wages. The lack of skilled workers can prevent local communities from generating the revenues needed to provide the public services that citizens require. Also, dropouts are less likely to participate in civic life, reducing the effectiveness of public engagement in democracy. Dropouts are more likely to end up marginalized, living as vagrants, creating communities of concentrated poverty and incarcerated at higher rates. This puts an even bigger burden on the community when potentially productive citizens are locked up at public expense.

I encourage everyone to read the report from the SEF. It explains how Alabama is ranked 42^nd in the nation in per capita income and clearly links that to our education system. It explores the pattern of dropout rates by county and shows that Alabama ranks 45^th in failure to graduate according to the US Department of Education.

To solve the dropout crisis facing our state, the SEF encourages Alabama to address the issues that “define the needs of the entire academic system: academic preparation for achievement, positive school environments, targeting effective programs, successful recovery and prevention measures, and adequate financing.” You can find the report online at http://www.sefatl.org/pdf/HSD%20Report-Final-2007Appendix.pdf

According to the report, “Alabama can attract and grow new industries with good paying jobs in the decades ahead only if it systematically keeps more students in school, provides them with affordable higher education, and helps them graduate from high school and college on time.”