Billions of dollars are being spent in the U.S. on students who drop out after their first year. Over the span of five years the estimate was near 4 billion dollars. California topped the list spending 480 million dollars on students who would drop out after their first year. 1/5 of full time community college students do not return after their first year. These numbers account for full-time students. If part time students were included the cost would be even higher. Research center vice president Mark Schneider believes that these numbers are enough to build up pressures for states to start taking action. The report didn’t show study results for low rate of success but noted many students just aren’t prepared for college.
It is obvious that a tremendous amount of money is being wasted on people who don’t want to further their education, but the amount of money wasted is only part of the concern. The dropout rate after one year of community college is 35% higher than in 2004. I believe this has a lot to do with economy and the difficulty of finding a job. Many students coming out high school go to a community college and their main focus is on when they are going to receive their refund check. I have friends that enrolled in community college for that sole reason. Maybe this is a small part of the reason students don’t return for a second year but this is something I often witness. States need to somehow adjust how they distribute refund checks to students to decrease the amount of people who enroll only for the refund check. Another possible reason for the high dropout rate is that many students graduate from high school without the grade requirements or are just unprepared for a four-year university and enroll in a community college only to find out that they are not prepared for that either. Guidance counselors can do a better job preparing students and guiding students in the right direction for when they graduate so they won’t be in a situation where they find out they are unprepared or not interested in furthering their education.
1 comment:
These figures are pretty disappointing when you look at how big the numbers are. However, there is a small bright side. I just saw that Colorado did an economic impact study on a yearly basis and it found that in Colorado community colleges contributed $3.01 billion dollars to the local economy. So it may be that the money we are spending on students dropping out is still paying off for the ones that continue and produce higher wage jobs & fill jobs that needed those extra skills. Thanks for making me realize these drop out economics however that I wasn't aware of.
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