Maureen Lane
The Thighbone is Connected to the Knee Bone
The Times yesterday ran a story on a new report of The Education Week newspaper. Times writer Diana Jean Schemo notes the report "estimated a 39 percent graduation rate for students in New York City, 25 percent lower than the city has publicly reported."
The report includes academic papers on the economic impact of kids not receiving a high school diploma.
The costs are enormous and the toll on our children's future is great. As Princeton economist Cecilia Elena Rouse tallies, "The combined income and tax losses aggregated over one cohort of 18-year-olds who do not complete high school is about $192 billion, or 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product."
One cohort a $192 billion loss and NYC is losing cohort after cohort year after year. We need some serious policy makers to change this alarming trend. In the body politic, we are all connected.
For students in poor families these figures have been real for a long time. In the past six years, Welfare Rights Initiative has found that more and more high school students from families receiving welfare are being discouraged from going on to college and arguably from even graduating high school.
Data continues to show the positive impact that occurs when the head of a poor household gets a high school and college degree and the negative impact on children and the economy when parents don't. Welfare policy intersects education policy, which intersects economic policy, which connects us all. The thighbone is connected to the knee bone and some of those bones are braking.
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Posted at 2:11 PM, Jun 22, 2006 in
Economic Opportunity | Education
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