$4.5 Billion in Earnings, Taxes Lost Last Year Due to the High U.S. College Dropout Rate
New Study Reveals the Annual Costs of Dropouts from One Freshman Class – Both to Themselves and Society
Washington, D.C. – As students across the country prepare to start their freshman year of college, more than 40 percent of them will not graduate within six years – costing billions of dollars in lost earnings for the students and millions of dollars in lost tax revenue, according to a new analysis by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).
AIR conducted a study that examined the more than 1.1 million full-time students who entered college in 2002 seeking bachelor degrees. Of that total, almost 500,000 did not graduate within six years – costing a combined $4.5 billion in lost income and lost federal and state income taxes.
The AIR analysis found that the 493,000 students who started college in 2002 but did not earn a degree within