High school dropouts adversely impact the state of Tennessee each year--financially and socially. Dropouts' lower incomes, high unemployment rates, increased need for medical care, and higher propensity for incarceration create a virtual vortex that consumes Tennesseans' tax dollars at a vicious rate. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on…

An analysis of the 1981 high school graduating class in Mississippi suggests that greater earnings for students and increased state revenues from income and sales taxes would result if the dropout rate could be reduced to the national average of 10 percent. Subtracting from the total first-grade enrollment (1969-70) both the number of 1981 private…

A study, growing out of human capital theory, examined the economic consequences of dropping out of high school. Effect of schooling over time on labor market success (hourly pay rate, occupational prestige, and employment incidence and duration) was measured. Data on young men and women was obtained from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor…