Don't Drop Out of High School Nationwide, 8.1% of students drop out of high school each year (Education Week). Studies have shown that failing to graduate from high school leads to poor choices for one's future. Dropping out of high school harms their future employment, increases the chance of getting in trouble with the law, and damages our country's image. As you grow as a child and teenager, you have dreams after dreams for your future. As you get older in life and school, your dreams seem to become harder to achieve. Dropping out of high school would mean taking the easy way out and your results will correspond to how hard you worked, not very hard. Instead of dropping out of high school, keep pushing through the tough times and you will see the results. The harder you work, the better and more special your achievement will be. After dropping out of high school, most dropouts do not enter the workforce. High school dropouts will earn $260,000 less over their lifetime than high school graduates. You are also contributing $60,000 less in federal and state income taxes (Monrad). If you drop out, your career plan will be greatly reduced. This is demonstrated by the fact that 90% of jobs require a high school diploma (Education Week). I would also like to point out that seventy-five percent of crimes in the United States are committed by high school dropouts. (Education Week). High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be incarcerated at some point in their lives than those who have completed high school. Each class of students who drop out of high school costs the U.S. economy more than eight billion dollars in lost income and wages each year. Approximately 30% of federal inmates, 40% of prison inmates, and 50% of people on death row drop out of high school (Monrad). This shows that a bad decision to drop out is more likely to be followed by another bad decision. While school dropouts in jails and prisons are fed by their institutions, just under a third of dropouts receive social assistance. Dropouts who get welfare add to the costs our country is losing (Economic Impacts of Dropouts). If they finished high school they would have a higher paying job and would not need social assistance.