Aug 21, 2008 6:38 pm US/Eastern
High School Drop-Outs Cost Taxpayers Millions
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Last year more than 11,000 Massachusetts students dropped out of high school. And while this comes at a huge personal cost for the kids, it's also a big financial cost to taxpayers.
A new study by Northeastern University says these dropouts will cost the public $108 million a year -- the cost in Massachusetts alone is $34 million each year.
"When I quit school it was bad", says 20-year-old Jenisse Reynoso of Boston. "I couldn't find a job."
What she did find, or rather they found her, was the
Boston Reconnect program. The program contacts high school dropouts and invites them to an information session. Outreach workers, like Manny Allen, counsel the kids and encourage them.
"You actually have to talk with them to find out why they dropped out, and I think that's the part the students like the most," Allen said.
Allen knows first-hand what the former students face. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 years old. He worked full time at a minimum wage job and quickly learned it wasn't enough to lead an independent life.
"My paycheck, I'd buy an outfit and I'd be broke," he said.
The study says dropouts cost society because they are less likely to work, more likely to need expensive social services like welfare and Medicaid, and many will end up in prison.
In its first two years, Boston Reconnect has helped about 300 students drop back in. Over the course of their lives, that will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Manny Allen downplays the financial savings.
"Of course I'm happy about that," he says. "But the other side is, they're going to have a life that goes with it."
Jenisse Reynoso graduated high school this past spring and is enrolled in college this fall. As for her future she says, "It looks amazing."
The Reconnect Program is run by the
Boston Private Industry Council with help from the Boston Public Schools.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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