Louisiana’s Dropout Crisis Quick Facts

State Facts

15,914 students did not graduate from Louisiana high schools in 2007; the lost collective lifetime earnings for these individuals is $4.1 billion.
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008)

Dropouts in Louisiana are paid $300,000 less in salaries throughout their lifetimes than a high school graduate.
(Louisiana Department of Education, 2008)

Louisiana contains 27 out of 211 high schools where 60% or fewer of the students progress to the 12^th grade.
(Alliance of Excellent Education, 2003)

Louisiana would save $226.7 million in health care costs over the lifetime of each class of dropouts.
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008)

75% of state prisoners dropped out of high school.
(Harlow, 2003)

If the graduation rate of male students would increase by just 5%, Louisiana would save $204 million in crime-related savings and additional revenue.
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008)

National Facts

Every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school.
(America’s Promise Alliance, 2008)

Dropouts are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty, and eight times more likely to wind up in prison.
(America’s Promise Alliance, 2008)

High school dropouts from the class of 2006-07 will cost the nation an estimated $329 billion in lost wages, lost taxes and lost productivity over their lifetimes.
(America’s Promise Alliance, 2008)

The national unemployment rate for dropouts is 26.9%.
(United States Department of Labor, 2008)

In 2002, the unemployment rate for blacks between the ages of 20 and 24 who had no high school diploma was 32%.
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003)

59% of federal prisoners dropped out of high school.
(Harlow, 2003)

Individuals who dropped out of high school in America are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than those who did not drop out of high school.
(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003)

Dropout Predictors

Retention is the strongest predictor of school dropout.
(National Dropout Prevention Center, 2008)

Truancy, academic failure, out-of-school suspensions and expulsions are predictive of school dropout.
(National Dropout Prevention Center, 2008)

Early life experiences (income levels and access to high quality preschool) are predictive of dropout prevention.
(National Dropout Prevention Center, 2008)

See Also:

   Louisiana Promise Dropout Summit