School Dropouts Save Texas Money But Only in Short Term
(Texas Tribune)
Every time a student drops out of public school, taxpayers save money. That’s one fewer student, at an annual savings of more than $11,000 per year from state and local sources.
You might argue those kids will cost the state a lot of money someday, either as prison inmates, welfare recipients, or as part of an expanding number of weak links in the labor chain when employers come looking for educated workers.
But the immediate result is that the dropouts save money. And politicians respond to immediate things. ….When the economy is bad and the favored political trope is no new taxes, no new spending, budgeting is a short-term exercise. …
The dropout problem has a longer fuse….The public schools are on a 13-year clock, starting with kindergarten and ending with the fourth year of high school. The budgeteers are on a two-year clock that starts and ends in even-numbered years. Their horizons are determined by the election calendar. (See full story here)
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