• America loses $192 billion -'"1.6 % of GDP'"- in combined income and tax revenue losses with each cohort of 18-year-olds who never complete high school. Increasing the educational attainment of that cohort by one year would recoup nearly half those losses.

• Health-related losses for the estimated 600,000 high school dropouts in 2004 totaled at least $58 billion or nearly $100,000 per student.

• High school dropouts have a life expectancy that is 9.2 years shorter than high school graduates.

• There will be a shortfall of seven million college educated workers in America by 2012.

• Participation in model preschool programs has been shown to boost academic achievement, reduce dropout rates and lower the risk of teen parenting, drug use and criminal violence. The economic benefits of such programs range as high as seven times each dollar invested.

Published Thursday, Apr. 13, 2006