New Coalition Focused on Re-engaging Dropouts

Posted by on December 14, 2009

New coalition promotes re-engagement of dropouts

Operation Restart is a new statewide coalition of nonprofit organizations and education and youth advocates seeking to increase public awareness of the high school dropout crisis throughout Pennsylvania and encourage efforts to re-engage out of school youth.

Convened by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children,  the effort has brought together 81 organizations throughout the Commonwealth, including United Ways, workforce investment boards, community colleges, county government agencies, youth service and advocacy organizations, research groups and others.“Pennsylvania must do more to help young people who have dropped out of high school obtain the educat

ion and skills necessary to get a job that provides them a self and family-sustaining wage,” the group says in a statement.

“To do so, the Commonwealth must ensure opportunities exist for high school dropouts to re-engage in high-quality education options that lead to a high school and postsecondary education (and/or an industry) credential that has value in the workplace. It is not only good policy for our young people, but it is sound economic policy as well.”

Currently in Pennsylvania, there are nearly 120,000 16 to 24 year olds who have dropped out of high school, according to the 2005-07 American Community Survey issued by the US Bureau of the Census.  In addition, the PA Dept. of Education reported in 2008 that more than 30,000 additional young people – that’s 166 students every school day – do not make it to graduation with their class.

Dropout re-engagement is not only an issue for our young people who have dropped out of high school, the group says, but it is also an important economic and workforce development issue for the Commonwealth.

The coalition says that Pennsylvanians need to pay more attention to the dropout crisis because the increasing number of people without a high school diploma undermines the state economy and aggravates an already huge qualified-worker shortage, resulting in a loss of more than a billion dollars in tax revenue annually.

The group notes that according to a 2008 Northeastern University study, a high school dropout costs $683 more in publicly-funded assistance programs than he or she contributes to the economy in taxes (including federal and state income tax, social security payroll taxes, local property taxes, and state sales taxes).

http://www.pwib.org/downloads/Fiscal_consequences_dropout_in_Philly_paper_final_2009.pdf

This compares with someone who has a high school credential plus some postsecondary education or an Associate’s degree who contributes a positive $9,485 each year.

If the nearly 120,000 16 to 24 year old high school dropouts in the Commonwealth were to re-engage and earn their high school credential plus some postsecondary education or an Associate’s degree, instead of costing the Commonwealth more than $80 million each year in publicly-funded programs, they would contribute more than $1.1 billion a year.

The additional lifetime earnings generated if all the students enrolled in 9th grade in 2004-05 were to graduate from high school with their class four years later (2008) is more than $12.6 billion.

The coalition reports that Pennsylvania dropouts earn nearly 40 percent less than a high school graduate with some postsecondary education or an Associate’s degree earns $20,766 vs. $33,829 annually; are nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to be unemployed than someone with a high school credential plus some postsecondary education or an Associate’s degree (10.4 percent vs. 4.3 percent)’ are nearly three times more likely to live in poverty than someone with a high school credential plus some  postsecondary education or an Associate’s degree (21.5 percent vs. 7.3 percent); and are three-and one-half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested, and more than eight times as likely to be incarcerated.

Operation Restart has announced an initial 15-point public policy agenda that calls for the Governor to  develop a cross-departmental dropout prevention and re-engagement strategy, including improving data quality, enhancing educational standards and access to alternative programs, increasing funding for alternative educational models and the creation of re-engagement centers, and authorizing tax credits for employers who provide part-time employment to former dropouts who have re-enrolled in educational programming.

http://whatmatters.uwde.org/restartpolicy.doc

For more information on Operation Restart, email Bill Bartle at bbartle@papartnerships.org or call 717-236-5680, ext. 209.