Important Moments in Life...

Important moments in life are generally governed by age.

At 5 years old, most of us begin our school years.

At 18, most of us graduate from high school.

Also at 18, we can join the military and we can vote.

At 21, we can legally use tobacco products.

I find it interesting that those decisions we make in life which we can, at a later date change, are kept from us until we are at least 18, but the one single most important decision we may ever make which is nearly impossible to reverse, that of quitting high school, is in most states legal at 16 years of age. 15 with parental consent.

What does it mean to a young adult when they drop out of high school?

Much more than you can imagine. Below are just a few of the unintended consequences of dropping out.

-They earn about $10,000.00 less per year for the rest of their life. That amounts to over $500,000.00 in lifetime income.

-They instantly become ineligible for nearly 90% of the jobs available in this country.

-The chance of incarceration rises dramatically

-They are at a much greater risk of substance abuse, criminal activity andgang membership.

-The risk of becoming entrenched in long term needs of Welfare, TANF, SNAP and other government programs also goes up by a very high percentage.

-The likelihood that they will become teen-age parents also increases tremendously.

Dropping out of school has devastating long term consequences, none of which are generally known or considered by the 16 year old on that dreadful day when they tell the Principal that they are quitting school. Unfortunately, once they have quit, it is very much harder to get back into school. Our education system almost immediately forgets the student. There is seldom any followup by the school administration, as none is required in the vast majority of cases.

While the act of dropping out is all to often devastating on the young adult, it also has far reaching effects on the local community. We will look further at those in the next post.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to like and share our website.