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Lakewood Times

    What Age Should Kids Be Allowed to Drop Out of School?

    In the United States an estimated 1.2 million students drop out  of high school each year.
    In the United States an estimated 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year.

    Every year in the United States an estimated 1.2 million high school students drop out, and 23,000 in Ohio alone. And surprisingly, one must meet only three requirements to do so: (1) you must have your parents’ permission, (2) you must have the district’s permission, and (3) you must have a full-time job. And to make it even better, you can start all of your drop-out activities at only sixteen years old.

    There are probably a least five kids I could name off the top of my head that have dropped out of my school, and there are probably many more that I do not have knowledge of.

    This is unfortunately the case for many other kids at schools not only in Ohio but all over the country.

    A lot of students know someone who has dropped out of their school and most know someone who has dropped out for no good reason at all.

    Students should feel good when they come to school and eager to learn but for so many high school drop-outs this was not the case.

    For whatever reason, these kids felt discouraged or frustrated when they came to school, so much so that they decided it was not even worth their time to come at all.

    This mind-set infuriates me when I think about the many people around the world who would do anything to have the educational opportunity that every child in the United States is granted at birth.

    For these kids to decide to quit school at such a young age is devastating to their futures. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released a study saying that only 41% of high school dropouts were employed with a full-time job.

    If we forced kids to stay in school until graduation we could at the very least send kids into the workforce with a high school diploma, instead of shoving them into the working world with only a G.E.D. or less.

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