United Way Online Forecaster Shows How Our Community Would Improve if Education Outcomes Rise

Wichita Falls, TX (August 10, 2009) – A year ago, United Way of America laid out a bold education goal – to cut in half the number of high school drop outs in the next decade. Locally, the North Texas Area United Way has joined the effort by focusing on increasing the quality of early education and after school programing.

A new interactive web tool – The Common Good Forecaster – allows one to see how things might change in our community if education outcomes were to improve. In partnership with the American Human Development Project, the United Way created the Forecaster to show the ripple effects of people's educational attainment on their health, financial stability, children's academic performance, and community involvement.

Here are some staggering statistics on the current state of our education system.

Nationally, more than 26% of our nation's young adults do not graduate on time. Of the 3.8 million public high school seniors that will graduate in 2010, 1.2 million will not. One recent study concluded that young adults in the United States are less likely than their parents to receive a high school diploma – a phenomenon not shared by any other industrialized country in the world.

Missing this mile stone can have detrimental effects. A high school graduate on average will earn 74% more over a lifetime than a high school drop out.

There are costs to society as well. Dropouts are more likely to be in prison – accounting for more than 75% of the prison population. Dropouts are significantly more likely to receive public assistance and for longer periods of time than those that at least earn a high school diploma.

Dropouts are also more likely to have long term health issues, higher mortality rates, higher suicide rates, and higher rates of admission to mental health programs in hospitals.

The Forecaster breaks new ground in that it goes beyond linking education to economic returns, but also to the social returns like public safety, low birth weights, and voting.

Here are some specific examples of scenarios it can create: If every adult in Wichita County moved up one level of education (those without a high school diploma were to graduate, etc.) the median personal income would increase 25% to more than $35,000 a year and life expectancy would go 1.9 years.

According to the president and CEO of the North Texas Area United Way, Diana Phillips, “this forecaster can help drive home the importance of achieving our national education goal of cutting the number of dropouts in half by 2018. Locally here in North Texas, we've put our stake in the ground trying to ensure that our children are ready to learn upon entering the school system, and then keeping them there until they finish.”

The Common Good Forecaster is free and available to the public at www.ntauw.org.