Each year nearly 14,900 students in Minnesota do not graduate with their peers...

• Dropouts from the class of 2007 cost the state almost $3.9 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes.
  
  
• If Minnesota’s likely dropouts from the class of 2006 graduated instead, the state could save more than $224 million in Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured care over the course of those young people’s lifetimes.
  
  
• If Minnesota’s high schools and colleges raise the graduation rates of Hispanic, African-American, and Native-American students to the levels of white students by 2020, the potential increase in personal income would add more than $1.3 billion to the state economy.
  
  
• Increasing the graduation rate and college matriculation of male students in Minnesota by only 5 percent could lead to combined savings and revenue of almost $77.7 million each year by reducing crime-related costs.

Also from the Alliance for Excellent Education:

• June 2008 - The High Cost of High School Dropouts - If all students of the Class of 2008 had graduated, Minnesota’s economy would have benefited from an additional $3.9 billion in income over their lifetimes.
  
  
• February 2008 - Minnesota High Schools Report
  
  
• October 2007 - Potential Economic Impacts of Improved Education on Minnesota

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.