North Carolina’s high school dropouts cost the public $169 million annually, according to a report released yesterday by the non-profit Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, which advocates for choice in public education.
The annual public costs — which, as measured in the study, include decreased tax revenues, increased unemployment, disproportionate use of Medicaid, and higher rates of incarceration — amount to about $4,437 per dropout. The study was published by the Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation, which also advocates for school choice and has produced similar reports for five other states.
The report characterized the dropout rate for North Carolina as a “crisis,” with only two-thirds of students who start high school ultimately graduating.
“The dropout rate in North Carolina is at epidemic proportions,” said Robert Enlow, executive director for the Friedman Foundation.
According to Darrell Allison, president of PEFNC, it was important to quantify the dropout rates for the state because until recently the state Department of Public Instruction had failed to do so accurately. At a press conference yesterday at the General Assembly building, Allison said PEFNC commissioned the study to show the “cost for taxpayers is real” due to high dropout rates, and that a solution to the problem is to increase options for parents to educate their children.
In addition to the public costs, the report noted that on average North Carolina dropouts earn $10,400 less per year and have lower rates of employment. The study also found that the state has more dropouts than residents with either two-year or advanced college degrees.
“We know the private costs,” Enlow said, “and now we know the public costs.”
The solution, according to the two groups, is to boost the number of educational choices parents have for their children.
“If competition from private schools is associated with higher graduation rates in public schools,” the study said, “then increasing competition via school choice programs not only will produce benefits to public and private school children, but it will be an effective way to increase the productivity of public schools and confer large public benefits by reducing the number of high school dropouts.”
The study also found that “even a modest school choice program” — one that would increase the percentage of North Carolina children enrolled in private schools by 3.9 percent — would reduce dropouts by up to 5,483 students per year, saving up to $24 million annually in public costs.