Finishing High School

A recent article on CNN was titled "'High school dropout crisis' continues in U.S., study says". Some of the tidbits in this article are:

• "Nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 in 2007 dropped out of high school"
• "The total represents 16 percent of all people in the United States in that age range in 2007"
• "Blacks and Hispanics of both genders are among those particularly prone to dropping out of high school"
• "Americans without a high school diploma have considerably lower earning power and job opportunities in today's workforce. Over a working lifetime from ages 18-64, high school dropouts are estimated to earn $400,000 less than those that graduated from high school."

Click to see the full report, "Left Behind in America: The Nation's Dropout Crisis". This report says that the mean annual earnings of all adults age 16-64 year (including zero earners/jobless all year) over the 2006-2007 time period are:
• No high school diploma: $11,031 per year
• High School diploma: $23,059 per year
• Bachelors degree: $50,863 per year
• Advanced degree: $76,091 per year

Help your pregnant teen to finish high school! This should be a very high priority for her if she is to ever be able to support herself and her child.

A GED is unfortunately still considered of less value than a high school diploma. The Left Behind in America report says, "National research has consistently revealed that GED holders, on average, do not fare as well in the labor market as regular high school graduates, and they are considerably less likely to obtain any type of post-secondary degree. Only a tiny fraction of GED holders (less than 10%) from the high school graduating Class of 1992 obtained a post-secondary degree by 2000 and an even lower share of young national GED holders have done so in recent years."