Archives for August 2015

An article that I wrote, entitled “Preventing School Dropouts” is the featured article in the Akribos e-newsletter publication for August 11, 2015. Go to www.akribosgroup.com to view the article or www.schargel.com

Franklin’s article entitled “Preventing School Dropouts” will be the feature article in the Akribos e-newsletter publication for August 11, 2015.  Go to www.akribosgroup.com to view the article and invite them to click on the appropriate link to subscribe to the newsletter publication, which is published bi-monthly.

A report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has found that college and university enrollments has increased in some states and declined in others.  The states with the largest declines:

• New Mexico -8.3%
• Oklahoma    – 5.5%
• Kentucky     – 5.3%
• Missouri      -5.0%
• Florida         -4.2%

The states with the largest increases:

• New Hampshire  + 19%
• Utah                       + 4.8%
• Connecticut           + 3.0%
• South Dakota         + 2.0%
• Arizona                    + 1.7%

There are a variety of possible reasons explaining the increases and decreases.  As the economy improves more people see  the need for more education and that would explain some of the increases.  At the same time, the increased costs of paying for college may explain the decreases. Other factors may be the increased aging of our society with fewer young people, the dropout rate and the narrowing of the high school to college pipe line.

The greatest declines occurred at four-year, for-profit colleges (4.9%) and at two-year public colleges (3.9%) which tend to attract larger numbers of older students.

 

From Child Trends:  5 Things to Know About Youth Not Employed or in School.

Connecting” disconnected youth could result in significant societal savings and individual benefits.

Nationally, unserved disconnected youth represent a devastating forfeiture of human potential and enormous financial costs (i.e., potential savings). Youth who do not finish high school earn less and subsequently pay significantly less in taxes than graduates.

Further, they consume more public benefits and are more likely to consume more public benefits and are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal acts. The estimated cohort of 6.7 million young people cited earlier resulted in a staggering cost of $93 billion to U.S. taxpayers in 2011. These are only economic costs-those that result directly in increased public expenditure or forfeiture, such as a decreased tax base or increased expenditure on prisons-and do not include social costs including reduced individual earnings and pain and suffering associated with crime victimization, among other things. Recent research estimates that each disconnected youth costs taxpayers about $ 236,000 over their lifetime and that the social costs are at least $704,000. When social factors are considered, the lifetime estimated cost of the current 6.7 million disconnected youth is $3.6 trillion.