If there was ever any doubt about the importance of a good education, a glance at the latest employment data should be enough to dispel it.
As the national jobless rate hovered at 10 percent last month, it was 15.3 percent for workers who never graduated high school; 10.5 percent for high school graduates; 9 percent for workers who attended some college; and 5 percent for those with a four-year degree or better, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And workers who lack an education are fated to earn less money than their better-schooled peers. Nationwide, high school dropouts in 2008 made median earnings of $426 per week, compared with $757 for high school grads and $1,072 for college grads.