Should the high school dropout age be raised to 18?
Please read the article submission and view the video posted by student presenter Browyn Dishun (Should the high school dropout age be raised to 18?) and after posting, respond to at least two other students.
Should the high school dropout age be raised to 18?
This article was by Robert Balfanz and Anna Swenson; they are both expressing their
different views on high school dropout age. Robert Balfanz argues that the age requirement
should be eighteen while Anna Swenson argues that there shouldn’t be a minimum age
requirement. This article was published in 2012 in the American Teacher. The article has both
authors discuss high school dropout age and if eighteen should be the minimum.
Robert Balfanz argues that the minimum age should be eighteen throughout the nation, he
states that students that leave high school early are only hurting themselves and the nation.
Balfanz states that one-fourth of students that do not graduate are unprepared to enter the
workforce (Balfanz, 2012). His biggest argument is that allowing the age to be below eighteen
allows students to think that dropping out is okay, that not getting a degree is an acceptable
future in the nation (Balfanz, 2012). Balfanz will admit that raising the age to eighteen won’t
guarantee dropout rates decrease, but he argues that it is at least a start. Anna Swenson argues the
opposite, she states that making the minimum age at eighteen won’t help the nation at all.
Swenson points out that research that shows making students stay in school when they don’t
wish to be, doesn’t increase the chances of them graduating (Swenson, 2012). She argues that
forcing students to stay in school longer than they wish only wastes the resources of the nation
and can hurt the students who want to learn in school (Swenson, 2012). Swenson states the
government should focus on why students are dropping out and solve those issues instead of
forcing students to only physically be in the classroom (Swenson, 2012).
The larger issue discussed in this article is that high school dropout is still a large issue in
the U.S. Policies have been made that requires states to be at the age of eighteen, but some states
still make exemptions and others have the minimum age at sixteen or seventeen. Both authors
realize that there is a larger issue than just the age requirement, why do students keep dropping
out?
I agree with Anna Swenson in this article; forcing students to be in a classroom when
they are already mentally checked out is just a waste of resources. I think policies should focus
on getting rid of the causes that result in students dropping out. I think that could benefit both the
future nation and the students that are enrolled in school. If we can do research on why students
are dropping out at such young ages, then maybe it can lead to a better education system.
In School and out of Trouble? The Minimum Dropout Age and Juvenile Crime
This article was by D. Mark Anderson in 2014 and published in the Review of
Economics and Statistics. The article looks at how the minimum age of high school dropout has
an effect on juvenile crime. It looks at both sides and discusses some of the differences between
states, gender, age, and type of crimes.
Anderson reaches the conclusion that the requirements of minimum age dropout have a
negative effect on juvenile crime (Anderson, 2014). The evidence and data collected shows that
states that require the minimum age to be 18 have about 17% fewer arrest rates in those to
sixteen to eighteen years of age (Anderson, 2014). Anderson states that most crime decreases
when the students are required to stay in school longer; going to school keeps them out of the
streets and less likely to be involved in criminal behavior (Anderson, 2014). Anderson does
mention that forcing students who do not wish to be in school can create issues among the
students who do wish to be there. He also points out that some legislation is not very simple, it
takes more than just creating a minimum age requirement. Some schools/states allow for there to
be exemptions for certain students; if parents give consent or if the child is financially
responsible for the family, the school allows them to drop out before the minimum age
(Anderson, 2014). Overall, Anderson points out that juvenile crime does decrease across almost
all types of crime, except for drug-related incidents, when students are required to stay in school
till eighteen.
The larger issue this article addresses are the positive and negative effects that minimum
age requirement has on the youth. How beneficial is it to those forced to stay in school and for
those who desire to be that? The article also sheds light on the fact that juvenile crimes are high
throughout the nation. It brings to question just how beneficial a minimum age requirement is
and what should be done about juvenile crime.
I thought this article was interesting but also a little difficult to follow because of all of
the math/data and research. I think it is interesting to see how crime among the youth changes
when they are forced to stay in school. It creates interesting questions and demands attention
from every state. It isn’t a perfect fix to youth crime, it only was somewhat beneficial. Yet, it
does show that it is possible to decrease juvenile crime. Much like the first article, it shows that
there is more to helping students than just keeping them in school till a certain age.
References
Anderson, D. M. (2014). In School and out of Trouble? The Minimum Dropout Age and
Juvenile Crime.
Review of Economics & Statistics, 96
(2), 318-331. Retrieved from:
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(2012). Should the high school dropout age be raised to 18?
American Teacher, 97
(1), 3.
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High School Dropout Rates (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
QUESTION
Should the high school dropout minimum age be 18? What about 16? Or should there be one at all?
Answer preview:
Word: 350