The report was released by a coalition of leading national and regional education, advocacy, and social service groups. It is titled, “Consequences of Dropping Out of High School: Joblessness and Jailing for High School Dropouts and the High Cost for Taxpayers—22 Percent Daily Jailing Rate for Young Black Men Who Drop Out of High School.” The report is available online at http://www.clms.neu.edu/.

Said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, “For too long, and in too many ways, young people across the country have been let down by the education system and by the adults responsible for their care and development. Now is the time to increase the investments we make in young people, enhance the content, opportunities and supports we provide, and empower them to make better choices about both their individual future and the future of our nation. This report is another important step towards those ends.”

Professor Andrew Sum, of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, was commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, to provide a detailed portrait of the employment, earnings and family income, incarceration and parenting experiences of dropouts, ages 16 to 24, compared to their better-educated peers. The report is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau data from national Current Population Surveys and American Community Surveys in 2006-08.

According to the report, dropouts experience high levels of joblessness and low weekly earnings:

•Black dropouts experienced the highest jobless rate at 69 percent, followed by Asians at 57 percent and Whites at 54 percent. Hispanic dropouts had the lowest jobless rates at 47 percent, reflecting the higher employment rate of young Hispanic immigrants. In sharp contrast, only about 13 percent of young adults with a college degree were jobless on average in the same time period.

•The limited earnings potential of dropouts mean many never leave their parents' or relatives' homes to form independent households. Nearly 37 of every 100 dropouts live in poor or near-poor families.

•Over $292,000 is the cost incurred by taxpayers for each dropout over their lifetime in terms of lost earnings and therefore lower taxes paid and higher spending for social costs including incarceration, health care, and welfare.

The report also states that dropouts are more likely to be single mothers. It states that nearly 38 percent of young female dropouts ages 16 to 24 were mothers, the highest percentage compared to their peers still enrolled in high school or college or with high school or college degrees. Young high school dropouts were nearly nine times as likely to become single mothers as their counterparts with undergraduate college degrees.

To address this crisis, the proposed federal Hope & Opportunity Pathways through Education (HOPE USA) initiative seeks to re-enroll 480,000 dropouts every year.

A group of organizations has jointly proposed that HOPE USA become a $2 billion federal matching incentive grant program to spur state and local school districts to establish programs to re-enroll dropouts in comprehensive programs that would assist them in earning a high school diploma. Proposing this program are the National Urban League; National Council of La Raza; Youth Build; the Corps Network; Los Angeles Conservation Corps; Soledad Enrichment Action, Los Angeles; Chicago Department of Family and Support Services; Illinois State Council on Re-Enrolling Students Who Dropped Out of School; the Chicago Urban League and the Alternative Schools Network.

The initiatives would be small schools—80 to 150 students—and led by experienced principals and teachers. Additional recommendations call for emphasis on and significant funding for re-enrollment of students who have dropped out of school as part of the Obama administration's Race to the Top initiative and revised No Child Left Behind legislation; and expansion of year-round and summer employment for jobless youth with a $5 billion initiative.