EPIDEMIC HIGH SCHOOL DROP-OUT RATES ACROSS USA - Job Opportunities Rare

(03/29/2008)
Outcomes for students in West Virginia schools are less than satisfactory, but they are not alone.

The high school drop-out rate is epidemic in America.

Each year almost one-third of all public high school students and nearly half of all black, Hispanic, and Native Americans fail to graduate, according to the Gates Foundation.

Another third will not graduate ready for college or the modern workplace.

In fact, all across the USA, much of the high dollar educational system is in disarray.

High school grads and drop-outs could once go the blue-collar route and find good paying jobs in manufacturing.

With the globalized economy and millions of jobs already shifted abroad - such opportunity is no longer available.

With America's current unconfirmed recession, less-educated workers who once thrived in the "middle class" and those below that scale, will suffer hard and deep.

The Gates Foundation report warned that drop-outs are much more likely to "be unemployed and living in poverty."