China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees
as the U.S., and they have six
times as many graduates majoring in engineering.
Students who graduate from
high school, but never go on to college, will earn
on average – about twenty-five thousand
dollars a year. For a family of five, that’s close
to the poverty line. But if you're Hispanic, you earn less. If you’re black, you earn
even less – about 14 percent less than a white
high school graduate.
Those who drop out have it
even worse. Only 40 percent have
jobs. They are nearly four times more
likely to be arrested than their friends who
stayed in high school. They are far more
likely to have children in their teens. One
in four turnto
welfare or other kinds of government
assistance.
Only about half of
African American and Hispanic American ninth
graders graduate from high school within four
years, compared with 79 percent of Asian
Americans and 72 percent of whites. Only 26
percent of all students attending colleges and
universities come from low-income families, and
of those students, only 6
percent earn their undergraduate degrees.
