Should the high school dropout minimum age be 18? What about 16? Or should there be one at all?

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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true&AuthType=ip,url,cpid&custid=s900293&db=buh&AN=96045042&site=eds-

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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?