Female dropouts bring a steeper toll
A new study from the National Women's Law Center in Washington D.C. doesn't overturn any deeply held societal conventions, but provides more evidence that dropping out of high school is a decision that brings a ripple of bad consequences.
The study tells us female dropouts are more prone to economic risk than their male counterparts. Girls are dropping out at the same rates as boys, the study found. But female dropouts earn lower wages than male dropouts, are more likely to stand in the unemployment line and are more likely to rely on welfare and other public support programs.
Girls "of color," as the study calls them, fare even worse. Nationwide, more than a third of Hispanic, two-fifths of black and half of American Indian or Alaskan Native females failed to graduate in four years in 2004.