The Societal Benefits and Costs of School Dropout Recovery

Table 4

Costs of OFY/OFL Dropout recovery, 2006-2007; Total and average costs Per HS graduate.

Total program expenditures, 2006-2007						$58,800,000
Induced costs of educating students who return to public schools to graduate:
Student status	Projected N of induced graduates				Induced cost of postsecondary education (1)
Graduated	769				$4,614,000
Returned to school		N years from recovery to graduation	Induced cost of finishing high school per student	Total cost of high school completion after return to school
Entered with no credits	129	3.7	$27,661	$3,568,295	$774,000
Entered with credits	98	2.3	$17,195	$1,685,090	$588,000
Sub-total ret. To Sch.	227			$5,253,385	$5,976,000	$11,229,385
Total graduates	996
Total costs of recovery of 996 dropouts						$70,029,385
Average cost per graduate: (I.E. per recovered dropout)						$70,311

(1) Induced costs of postsecondary education use estimates of probabilities of attending different types of college experiences for a potential dropout population, per Levin et al. [1, pages 5 and 6]; these estimates assume that 75 percent of new graduates will attend one semester or less of 2-year college, one in six new graduates will obtain a 2-year degree or attend some 4-year college, and one student in twelve will earn a 4-year college degree. We employ estimates of 2007-2009 public expenditures for 2 and 4-year public colleges in California.