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Few people realize the impact that high school dropouts have on a community's economic, social, and civic health. Business owners and residents--in particular, those without school-aged children--may not be aware that they have much at stake in the success of their local high schools. Indeed, everyone--from car dealers and realtors to bank managers and local business owners--benefits when more students graduate from high school. Nationally, more than seven thousand students become dropouts every school day. To better understand the various economic benefits that a particular community could expect if it were to reduce its number of high school dropouts, the Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance), with the generous support of State Farm[R], analyzed the local economies of the nation's fifty largest cities and their surrounding areas. Using a sophisticated economic model developed by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc., an Idaho-based economics firm specializing in socioeconomic impact tools, the Alliance calculated economic projections tailored to each of these metro regions. These projections estimate the gross increase in important local economic factors such as individual earnings, home and auto sales, job and economic growth, spending and investment, tax revenue, and human capital based on two scenarios: (1) Reducing by half the number of local students from the Class of 2008 who failed to graduate with their class; and (2) Reducing by one thousand the number of local students from the Class of 2008 who failed to graduate with their class. This paper presents the findings for each of the forty-five metropolitan areas that together encompass the nation's fifty largest cities, as well as aggregated findings across these areas. These findings are powerful reminders that entire communities are impacted by the educational outcomes of their youth, and they underscore the notion that the best economic stimulus package is a high school diploma. Individual sections contain footnotes.

Building on its previous work examining education and the economy, the Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance), with generous support from State Farm[R], analyzed the economies of all fifty states and the District of Columbia to determine the economic benefits that states could see by improving high school graduation rates. Using a sophisticated economic model developed by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc., an economics firm specializing in socioeconomic impact tools, the Alliance calculated economic projections for each state. The findings presented in this document clearly demonstrate that the best economic stimulus package is a high school diploma. In Colorado, an estimated 17,300 students dropped out from the Class of 2010 at great costs to themselves and to their communities. Cutting that number of dropouts in half for this single high school class could result in tremendous economic benefits to the state. This paper presents the economic benefits that would likely occur if half of Colorado's nongraduates from the Class of 2010 had graduated with their high school class. (Contains 4 footnotes.) [For the main report, "Education and the Economy: Boosting the Nation's Economy by Improving High School Graduation Rates," see ED517973.]