We know dropping out of high school means lower lifetime earnings for those who do not graduate.
But now we know how much Maryland’s dropout rate is costing state taxpayers: $193 million each year and counting.
A recently released study from the Maryland Public Policy Institute shows that each class of dropouts costs Marylanders about $42 million through lower wages, higher unemployment and incarceration. To cite one example, Gary Maynard, the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, told The Examiner in August that about 80 percent of Maryland prisoners dropped out of high school (if not before) and 30 percent are illiterate. It costs about $25,000 per year per prisoner.
The study finds each dropout costs state taxpayers $1,555 in lost tax revenue a year and that dropouts earn about $10,000 less per year than high school graduates, with Baltimore City posting some of the worst graduation rates in the nation at less than 50 percent.
This makes improving the city’s graduation rate a Baltimore County and Howard County and Harford County and Carroll County and Anne Arundel County problem too — because lower tax revenues mean less state funding for roads and schools and other worthy projects.
And at a time when the state must cut the budget in the face of falling tax revenues, it can not afford to pump more money into a broken system.
By forcing students to attend failing schools, the state dooms them and makes taxpayers pick up the tab for the consequences of their dropping out of school. Common sense says allowing students to attend the public or private schools of their choice would give many students in the city a safer learning environment with the resources students need to learn and to help them stay in school. It would also increase competition for public schools and encourage them to improve their learning environment or face losing students and the tax dollars that go with them.
And as the study notes, competition could save taxpayers millions, as a 6 percent increase in the graduation rate translates to about $5 million saved each year.
If students’ lives aren’t a big enough incentive to allow school choice, shouldn’t the safety of our bridges, the solvency of public pensions and health of the Chesapeake Bay be good enough reasons?
