December 9, 2013
Michayla
Berthiaume
ENGL
102
Toulmin
Essay
November
13, 2013
Is the High School Dropout Age Set
too Low?
With the requirements for high
school graduation becoming harder, more students find themselves wanting to
dropout, but cannot based on society’s new view on education. A go to job for
dropouts use to be McDonalds and other bottom of the barrel minimum wage jobs,
but now even McDonalds is looking for employees with a high school diploma or
GED. With these jobs, dropouts will never really advance themselves to a
satisfying position or find a job that will support the dropout for the rest of
their life. Students who make the decision to dropout are too young and naive
to know what mistake they are making, which is why dropping out should not be
as easy as turning sixteen and having their teachers sign a piece of paper.
Most states have their dropout rate corresponding to their legal age of
employment for the reason of having a second option. In today’s society, there
is a stress on the importance of education rather than on employment for
teenagers. Although many go on and find fortunes as a drop out, the number of
successful dropouts is dwindling due to society valuing education and requiring
at least a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) for
most jobs.
Having a high school diploma or GED is
much more crucial to a successful career then it was twenty years ago because
the U.S is advancing at a much faster pace, and students must be prepared for
jobs that have not even been discovered yet. Currently, there are very few
people who can go on making a fortune, such as with trades, without a high
school education. According to Richmond, data reported that in 2010-2011 1.8 million young adults (which, not
surprisingly, includes a disproportionate percentage of minorities) have left
school without a diploma (“High School Graduation Rate Hits
40-Year Peak in the U.S”).
Of those 1.2 million—66 percent—are not working (Richmond). The main reason
those 66 percent are not working, is because they are either too lazy to get a
job or cannot get a job because places value education more now than ever. That
66 percent will someday have a minimum wage job, but with minimum wage being so
low, one day when the former dropout has a place to live and a family, the government
will have to support them to live. Where the money comes from to support the
welfare programs is the money that comes out of taxes of the working class who
went ahead and got an education and a real job.
There are only 6 out of 50 states
that have a minimum wage over eight dollars and only Washington state has their
minimum wage over 9 dollars. All other states must at least reach the U.S
federal wage baseline of $7.25 (CNN Money). Even if the high school dropout
were fortunate enough to live in one of those states that has a pay of over 8
dollars an hour and working maybe 50 weeks of the year, before taxes they would
only make roughly 2,900 dollars. This might work for someone who has no kids,
no house of their own and no bills to pay. Once these factors begin to come into
play, there is no way to live successfully off a salary of 2,900 dollars per
year. There is no chance of horizontal or vertical mobility in minimum wage
jobs and there is only a certain level of ranking that can be reached. The
median income of a person aged 18 through 65 who had not completed high school
was roughly $24,000 in 2007. By comparison, the median income of persons ages
18 through 65 who completed their education with a high school credential,
including a General Educational Development (GED) certificate, was
approximately $40,000 (High School Dropout Rates:2007).
As a current college student I have
struggled earning enough money to pay my car insurance, simple living expenses,
and having money for fun. I am in college now, with a high school diploma
because I know from experience what I have to do to someday have a house, kids
and be able to live a comfortable life. My mother never went to college due to
having a child in her teenage years, but because she had a high school diploma
and enjoyed working with numbers she was given an opportunity at an insurance
office. From there, she was able to build her career. However, even now that
she makes a decent living for herself she wouldn’t be paid the same amount as
another person with the very same position who has a college degree.
Just
like it showed of my mother, those who at least have a high school diploma show
that they can handle and complete a major challenge in their life. More jobs
will be willing to take a person with no post-secondary option over someone
without even a high school diploma. It can show something about an individual’s
character that as soon as something gets tough or they get sick of it, quitting
is the first option. Employers are looking for loyal and dedicated workers that
will not have to worry about their employees leaving at any moment. If there
are no other means of an education, at least a high school diploma or a GED
must be obtained. The nation's high
school graduation rate is approaching 75 percent, its highest rate in 40 years
(Emily Richmond). Just since 2000 there has been an 8 percent increase in
graduates, this is showing how valued our education is becoming and students
are realizing they need to stay in school.
Students who
are sixteen years old are not nearly as mature as they think in making a life
changing decision as to drop out of school. They are still under their parents
rule with close to zero responsibilities, especially money based
responsibilities. As of October of 2013, Eighteen other states and the District of Columbia already set the minimum
dropout age at 18, the other states set the maximum age of mandatory attendance
at 16 or 17 (Adrienne Lu). Massachusetts is one of the last states to consider
raising the drop out age to 18 in an effort to improve graduation rates. Most
high school students do not turn 18 until their senior year or sometime after
they graduate from high school. If they can keep kids in school until their
senior year or close to the very end of senior year, hopefully students will choose
to graduate rather than dropout with less than a year left.
Although, this will
surely raise the graduation rate, it could cause more problems for schools
internally. If students can’t get out of school when they want too, they take
up class time being disruptive causing other students to not be able to learn.
It will also cause administration to be focusing all their time on the
delinquent kids rather than the school as a whole. Not all kids are meant for
school or learning in that type of structured environment. Unfortunately, it
does not just come down to the well-being of the student that officials are
looking out for. Democratic state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz said, “We have 70
percent of our jail and prison population as people who have dropped out of
high school,” adding that 70 percent of jobs in the near future will require
some postsecondary education. “If we are not graduating all of our students, we
are setting ourselves up for some serious economic problems down the road”
(Adrienne Lu). Once the drop out age is made higher, problems of dropouts will
be solved economically in the future.
The problem is to make the step towards keeping students
in school long enough to graduate, but raising the age will do just that.
Times have changed since
the establishment of the dropout age, there is now more of a stress on education
rather than a job. That is why sixteen is not an appropriate age to dropout. It
is crucial for the student to be at least eighteen to make a responsible
decision about how they will support themselves financially, and have a chance
at obtaining a job that will not be paying minimum wage. The dropout rate has
decreased as students themselves have realized the importance of education and
the demand for an education for jobs that have not even been created yet. If
students do not go on to get a college education, at least a high school
diploma or GED is necessary to withhold a job to support themselves for the
rest of their life.
Works
Cited
"High School
Dropout and Completion Rates in in the United States:2007." Institute
of Education Sciences. U.S Department Of Education, n.d. Web.
<http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009064.pdf>.
"High School
Dropout Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., 28 Apr. 2013. Web.
18 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/>.
Lu, Adrienne.
"The Pew Charitable Trusts." The Pew Charitable Trusts. N.p.,
11 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/massachusetts-debates-raising-school-dropout-age-to-18-85899511781>.
Richmond, Emily.
"High
School Graduation Rate Hits 40-Year Peak in the U.S." The Atlantic. N.p., 6 June 2013. Web. 18
Nov. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/high-school-graduation-rate-hits-40-year-peak-in-the-us/276604/>.
"Training
& Education." :: McDonalds.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/careers/training_education.html>.
"2013 Minimum
Wage, State by State." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 18
Nov. 2013. <http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/state-minimum-wage/>.
