The Penn Foster Blog

Poverty, income inequality, and crime are combustible forces that can destroy families, corrupt communities and harden society in countless ways. The good news is that the common vaccine to all these ailments is education, starting with a high school diploma. More than 90% of jobs demand this credential to get a job, and the imperative for all stakeholders (students, parents, schools, businesses and government) is to build a cohesive plan of attack.

The cost of putting a student through school is less than the cost of imprisonment.  On top of that, an individual has a much higher financial (and social) benefit to their community as a high school or college graduate than as an inmate.

Youth entrenched in monetary struggles without a high school education are at high risk for being involved in crime, arrest, and incarceration. Crime rates are linked to educational attainment, according to a 2013 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, entitled "Saving Futures, Saving Dollars: The Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings," asserts that if male high school graduation rates increased by just 5 percent, the nation could save about $18.5 billion in annual crime expenses. The lower the education attainment levels, the higher the rates of arrest and incarceration.

In April, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the high school graduation rate in the United States has reached its highest point in history. 80% of the nation's students received a high school diploma in 2012, the most recent year for which statistics were available. Duncan called the news a "profound milestone" during a speech he gave before the America's Promise Alliance, and he recognized the teachers, families, and students who made it possible.1

Job seekers with the right skill set can find a wealth of opportunities in the grey-collar sector. Demand for skilled trade workers in specialized career fields including healthcare, forestry, paralegal services, and manufacturing (among others) are expected to grow by nearly 50 percent, while the supply of qualified employees for these industries is expected to decrease about 12 percent, according to Manpower Group's Talent Shortage Survey.1 Employers continually struggle to find qualified applicants due to a lack of training.

One of the biggest barriers that is preventing the Education sector from wholesale technological transformation is regulation.  Unlike other industries that have been disrupted due to advances in technology, Education's "Internet Moment" is continually delayed due to 150 years of complex local, State, and Federal regulations.  While many of the regulations seem impervious to market forces and disruption, there are more and more signs that people are beginning to question the existing "status quo".

Income inequality and poverty-stricken households significantly influence the demise of a local community. And a low-income community driven by under-educated individuals actually perpetuates this fiscal depression. For example, a primary reason that the U.S. economy is growing but the traditional "all boats will rise" prosperity phenomena has not happened is a direct result of the millions of people outside the economic mainstream who lack the skills and opportunity to exploit this middle-skills gap moment. Regrettably, the consequences of poverty are impeding community growth, from poor health and hunger to lost productivity and steep economic deficits.

At a typical career college, about 40 percent of students drop out before completing their training, according to Complete College America.1  While this is clearly a problem for the students, it also costs the colleges a lot of money. Estimates provided by a group of six retention experts polled by Career College Central report that lost revenue due to attrition can be as much as $3,000 per student, if the student drops in the first quarter. To break it down further, the report drew a portrait of the average per-dropout costs of attrition; assuming a career college's average monthly tuition is $1,200, the average time to graduate is 14 months, and most dropouts occur during the first half of the term, schools lose at least seven months of revenue, equating $8,400, per dropout.1