The Potier Foundation, Inc.

For an economy dependant on human capital, the number of frightening. Statewide, 1 n 5 student in the class of 2006 didn’t graduate on time, according to a Northeastern University Center of Labor Market Studies. Nationally the story is even worse.

In Boston, 2 in 5 didn’t graduate. Race, gender, and geography matter. In Boston, only 48 percent of black males and 43 percent of Hispanic males graduate on time.

Weston High School (Top ranked Suburban High School in MA) graduated 99 percent of its male students; in Lawrence that number was 34 percent.

Research by Northeastern economist Andrew Sum shows that dropping out correlated to all the wrong stuff.

Dropouts are:

• More likely to be poor
• More likely have children out of wedlock
• Less likely to get married
• More likely to go to jail, and will die sooner.  

 Consider this though :

The median annual earnings among white male high school dropouts nationwide, age 20 -29, was $14, 269 in 2005.

Among black male high school dropouts the number was an incredible $2, 038, a reflection of how few are working.

But get black men through college and something remarkable happens:

Their Median annual income jumps to $29,537 compared to $30,576 for white males.

The income gap nearly disappears, education being the great Leveler.