Why So Important

Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition

Why This Work Is So Important

The following are some interesting statistics that we found on the Alliance for Excellent Education website. They point to the connection between a community and what happens when kids don’t stay in school.

Economic Considerations

  • American business currently spends more than $60 billion each year on training, much of that on remedial reading, writing, and math. (National Association of Manufacturers 2001)
  • Employment projections indicate that by 2008 jobs requiring
    • A high school degree will grow by 9%
    • An associate’s degree will grow by 31%
    • A bachelor’s degree will grow by 25%
  • From the US Census, National Average Annual Earnings:
    • No high school diploma $16,124
    • High School diploma $22,895
    • Bachelor’s Degree $40,478
    • Advanced Degree $63,229

Criminal Justice Numbers

  • High School dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested in their lifetimes. (Catterall, 2001)
  • A 1% increase in high school graduation rates would save approximately $1.4 billion in costs associated with incarceration costs. (Lochner and Moretti, 2001)

Early Parenting

  • Male and female students with low academic achievement are twice as likely to become parents by their senior year of high school compared to students with high academic achievement. (Arizona Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting 2003)