Each year thousands of Minnesota students do not graduate with their peers...

• Just over 15,000 dropouts from the Class of 2008 cost the state over $3.9 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes — up from nearly 14,900 dropouts from the Class of 2007, which cost the state almost $3.9 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes.
  
  
• More than $1.3 billion would be added to Minnesota’s economy by 2020 if students of color graduated at the same rate as white students.
  
  
• Minnesota households would have over $829 million more in accumulated wealth if all heads of households had graduated from high school.
  
  
• Minnesota would save more than $224.4 million in health care costs over the lifetimes of each class if 100% of students had earned their diplomas.
  
  
• If Minnesota’s high schools graduated all of their students ready for college, the state would save almost $89.1 million
  a year in community college remediation costs and lost earnings.
  
  
• Minnesota’s economy would see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of about $77.8 million each year if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5%.

Additional Resources

March 2008 - Knocking at the College Door Projections of High School Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity, 1992-2022 - Provides data on enrollments and graduates by state and for major racial/ethnic groups covering the period from 1991-92 through 2021-22. Does NOT include data on dropout/completion rates overall or by ethnicity (Minnesota State Report), Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.