The High Cost of Failure

We all lose when troubled kids fail. Here are some statistics:

• In 2001, 85 per cent of B.C. income assistance expenditures went to high school dropouts.
• In the same year, B.C. high school dropouts consumed 90 per cent of criminal justice expenditures.
• According to a 2002 Statistics Canada study, high school dropouts in the 25-44 age group face an employment rate more than 10 per cent lower than their peers who have finished high school.
• The outlook is even more dismal for students who do not progress to high school: 50 per cent of those who have less than a grade nine education are unemployed.

Inevitably, our taxes must pay for higher welfare costs and other costs.

It’s challenging to estimate the total social costs of failing to cope with troubled children. That’s because costs are spread across various government ministries and departments. The following represent some of the ways all of us end up paying more, both in tax dollars and directly, because we’re not dealing effectively with this problem:

• Welfare benefits
  
• Child benefits
  
• Foster care charges
  
• Criminal justice administrative costs
  
• Prison costs
  
• Parole costs
  
• Additional educational costs
  
• Additional health care costs
  
• Personal loss to others caused by drunken or careless driving
  
• Personal losses to others caused by assault, theft or vandalism

The Cost for Individuals
In reality, it’s not possible to separate the costs to individuals and to society. If we fail to encourage and nurture our troubled young people, we will fail to reap the benefits of their strengths and potential. We lose both ways.

And, for those who fail to graduate, the results are devastating and long-lasting. Studies have shown that youth who do not graduate from high school earn on average 50 per cent less in lifetime earnings than their peers. They also lose by spending more time in unemployment lines, welfare offices and prisons.