To demonstrate the impact that high school dropouts have on a particular state, the Alliance for Excellent Education has created economic impact fact sheets for every state and the District of Columbia. These fact sheets help policymakers and the public understand the extent of the economic costs to society of an educational system that serves so many students poorly. They also provide an overview of the potential economic benefits that a state could enjoy were it to invest in a high school system that prepares all high school students for graduation and success after high school.

The information included in the state economic impact fact sheets come from more detailed analyses conducted by the
Alliance on a number of areas and published as issue briefs that explain the analyses and issues at stake in more detail:

• The Cost of High School Dropouts: The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools shows that if the dropouts from the class of 2006-2007 had earned their diplomas with their classmates, the nation's economy would have benefited from an additional $329 billion in additional income over their lifetimes.

• Health Care: Healthier and Wealthier Decreasing Health Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment argues that higher educational attainment improves a student's future income, occupational status, and social prestige, all of which contribute to improved individual health. The brief cites several reasons why: Americans with higher educational attainment have more insurance coverage, individuals who lack health insurance receive less medical care and have poorer health outcomes, and lower education levels generally lead to occupations with greater health hazards.

• Household Wealth: Hidden Benefits: The Impact of High School Graduation on Household Wealth demonstrates that if high school dropouts who currently head households in the U.S. had earned diplomas, the nation's economy would benefit from an additional $74 billion in wealth accumulated by families. The wealth gap between high school dropouts and high school graduates is even more severe than the better known income gap.

• Higher Graduation Rates Among Minority Students: Demography as Destiny: How America Can Build a Better Future examines the education gap that exists between white and minority students in the United States. It finds that only about 70 percent of all American high school students graduate in the expected four years, but the figures are even bleaker for minority populations. As minority populations become larger as a percentage of the population, and if their low graduation rates remain the same, the national graduation rate will soon begin to fall as a growing number of minority students are left behind.

• College Remediation: Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation estimates that the nation spends more than $3.7 billion a year because too many students are not learning the basic skills needed to succeed in college or work while they are in high school.

• Crime: Saving Futures, Saving Dollars: The Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings finds that reforming the nation's high schools could potentially increase the number of graduates and, as a result, significantly reduce the nation's crime-related costs and add billions of dollars to the economy through the additional wages they would earn. Increasing the graduation rate and college matriculation of male students by only 5 percent could lead to combined savings and revenue of almost $8 billion each year.

To access the economic impact fact sheet for your state, click on it in this map .