The Value of Adult Education

Editor's note: The following is an adapted excerpt from an op-ed piece I wrote for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette a few years ago. While it talks about Arkansas, the story is true for every state in the Union.

With all the pomp and circumstance of high school graduation almost upon us, we may forget those students who did not graduate.

The sad reality is that, even with the job market demanding advanced levels of education, at least one out of every five high school students who should be graduating this spring has dropped out. Their reasons are as varied as they are – family situations, illness, an undiagnosed learning disability, lack of basic academic skills, personal problems, boredom, unrealistic dreams, poor choices.

When they drop out, these students condemn themselves, and their future families, to a second-class life. Today’s college graduate will make $1 million more over a lifetime than a high school graduate, but the dropout, averaging less than $19,000 a year, won’t even make $1 million in a lifetime.

The number of adults who do not have a high school education is growing. In Arkansas alone, nearly a half-million residents over 18 have not finished high school. More than 170,000 of those don’t even have an eighth-grade education. And thousands more do not have the basic educational skills needed to be successful in today’s workplace.

Why should the rest of us care?

By addressing these needs, adult education increases the earning (and spending) power of these adults, which then comes back to the state through higher income and sales taxes. It also reduces the amount of public money -- your tax dollars -- that must be spent on welfare.

But instead of investing in adult education and workforce training, most states, and the federal government, continue to feed the welfare system. Arkansas is the only state that provides adults a free second chance at getting a high school education. While other states charge for GED classes and tests, about 6,500 Arkansans -- including prisoners -- receive their high school diploma by passing the free GED tests each year.

Under Gov. Mike Huckabee, the state went a step further by offering its residents on welfare free tuition to a two-year college and help with childcare and transportation. It was a win-win situation for the families and the state.