Blaine High School has a graduation rate of 90%.  That is extremely high, as the national average is closer to 82%.  But still: 90%.  If you look around your classroom, three of your classmates will not be graduating with you.  If you’re one of the 90% who are planning on graduating, good for you.  You aren’t the intended audience of this article.  However, if you are not planning on graduating, keep reading.  By dropping out of high school, you are doing a disservice not only to yourself, but to the world.

The statistics about the lives of high school graduates versus non-high school graduates all reveal the same thing: graduating from high school improves the quality of your life.  According to those statistics, your chance of getting employed goes up by 7% if you graduate from high school.  That’s a significantly better chance.  Not only that, but your annual income is expected to go up by about $10,386.  Think about that: $10,386 more per year!  If you are employed for forty years, that equates to $415,440 over the course of your lifetime.  All for staying in school for a couple more years!  

High school dropouts are twice as likely to live in poverty than college graduates.  They are also 63 times more likely to be incarcerated (imprisoned) than those who graduate high school (although it’s normally not the failure to graduate from high school that causes people to get incarcerated — some other factor usually causes both of them).  

But not only are you harming yourself by failing to graduate — you’re harming society.  A high school dropout will cost taxpayers an average of $292,000 over a lifetime due to “the price tag associated with incarceration and other factors such as how much less they pay in taxes,” according to PBS.  By not graduating, you become a burden to the country.  Also, by failing to unlock your full potential, you’re failing to improve the world as much as you could.

So the moral of the story is to graduate from high school.  By failing to graduate, you sacrifice at least $400,000 of income over your lifetime, increase your chance of living in poverty, and decrease your chance of getting a job.  

So in conclusion, as Barack Obama said, “dropping out of high school is no longer an option.  It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country, and this country needs the values and talents of every American.”  

Statistics retrieved from pbs.org