Dismal dropout rates for Detroit schools

A 2006 news report and a 2005 Princeton study raise costly issues for students and residents of Detroit schools. In 2006, USA Today reported on a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He said several of the largest school districts in the country had a graduation rate below 50%. Detroit Schools, the 11th largest district in the country, came in last with a shocking 21.7%.

Of course, the study sparked heated debates about its accuracy and fairness. In 2005, the state and city placed the Detroit Schools graduation rate at around 44-48%, depending on the source. Part of the discrepancy is explained by looking at “timely graduation rates” versus those graduating over a period of more than four years. Any way you look at it, no one in Detroit Schools is happy about it.

Dropping out of high school costs Detroit schools and city residents money. A lot of money. A 2005 Princeton University study found that dropping out of high school, on average, costs the county $260,000. Michigan dropouts were estimated to stand to lose more
$11 billion in total lifetime income by giving up the diploma. The reasons are clear.

Whether you look at Detroit Schools or any other district, the patterns are the same. High school graduates earn more money, live longer lives, have healthier and better educated children, are less likely to become teen parents, are less likely to commit crimes, and are less dependent on government medical and social services. Detroit Schools feels the impact of these costs in its high welfare rolls and unemployment rates. The unemployment rate in Michigan is the worst in the country and the high dropout rate is directly related.

More than 50% of inmates in Michigan jails are high school dropouts. And it costs the state more than $29,000 a year just to house them. 40% of parents receiving public assistance in the state also dropped out of Detroit schools (or other schools).

The problem is made worse when race is included as a factor. In fact, the Princeton study estimated the increase in personal income that could be achieved by raising the “educational attainment” of minority groups to that of white students by 2020. It found that students in Michigan and Detroit schools would earn more than $3 billion in additional income total personal income. The question is how to make it happen.

The racial gap has existed for years and poses a huge problem for Detroit Schools. Funding for adult education was cut by more than $50 million two years ago. Now, Detroit Schools is struggling to meet the class size and proficiency mandates set by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

And in another racially heated move, the US Supreme Court recalled the Brown case that had allowed the use of race as a factor in determining school attendance and in trying to integrate schools. This is a poignant issue for Detroit schools, as in 1974 Milliken v. Bradley’s decision that such desegregation cannot be enforced across district lines. Many Detroit Schools residents still see that decision as a factor in the resulting “white flight” that has left Detroit Schools a divided and bankrupt district.