Students entering high school are often reminded that staying in school can create a successful life for them. Some students resort to earning money rather than finishing high school, due to their family upbringing. Although the objective is to give students the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations, many end up not graduating. Statistically proven, the increase of poverty is due to high school dropouts. Those students who dropout out are more likely to have health problems, engage in criminal activities, and depend on welfare (Christle, Jolivette, and Nelson 325). According to the School Characteristics Related to High School Dropout Rates article, dropouts comprise 52% of welfare recipients, 82% of the …show more content…
Students who dropout tend to have a higher risk for long-term sickness. To decrease the rate of high school dropouts, Derek Messacar and Philip Oreopoulos have created a proposal. Their proposal was to make school attendance compulsory until age 18 and to add target programs to better help students avoid regret (Messacar and Oreopoulos). First, they suggested that the federal government should educate the benefits of high school graduation. They wanted the federal government to consider more restrictive laws such as imposing a national minimum school-leaving age. Second, they suggested that states should encourage new programs to reengage at-risk youth. To remind students of how important it is to finish school, creating these programs can help decrease the high school dropout rate. Third, state and local governments should improve the enforcement of new and existing laws. Lastly, compulsory-schooling laws should be designed to promote college attendance and improve the career outcomes of …show more content…
The statics shown have proven that high school dropouts add to the issues already occurring. Decreasing the rate of high school dropouts can decrease the rates of issues caused by them. These issues are forgone national income, forgone tax revenues for the support of government services, increased demand for social services, increased crime and antisocial behavior, and poorer levels of health (Christle, Jolivette, and Nelson). Although students can lose the motivation to finishing school, creating programs and laws to help reengage them academically can help prevent them from future health risks or poor