I think the crux of the argument is what the cost/benefit ratio needs to be to feel like it is a good use of money. Is it worth dealing with higher funding and MORE inefficiency, cronyism and redundant positions in administration, more meddling by the federal government, etc... If it results in better facilities, adequate supplies, and other benefits, if, oh, 20% more students become productive citizens than would otherwise? That's up to the individual and their opinion. I don't believe children should suffer due to the sins of the parents. But, I can see how others have a different opinion than mine.
Let's drill down into some hypothetical numbers. Feel free to apply better assumptions to the model if you are familiar with them.
Let's say a high school has 10,000 students. 40% are in a position that needs the safety net you speak of in order to level the outcome. That can be i) no parental involvement at home with homework ii) insufficient diet iii) undo stress from living conditions...etc.
So now you are down to 4,000 students. The safety net, as is, is successful in helping 92% of these students achieve an education. i) Subsidized lunches ii) remedial school iii) daily bus rides iv) students requiring specialists, etc...
Now you are down to 320 students of the original 10,000, who drop out at some point between grade 7 and grade 12. Or 3.2%
In your response above, you'd like to see what the cost is to capture 20% of that 320, or 64 more students. New dropout rate at 2.56%
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I got tired of that mental exercise, and just googled "what is the average dropout rate for high school." I chose the 2nd google response after the ads.
I suggest you look at this study and pay attention to the difference between "Event dropout rate" and "Status dropout rate."
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015015.pdf
For example, the median income of persons ages 18 through 67 who had not completed high school was roughly
$25,000 in 2012. By comparison, the median income of persons ages 18 through 67 who completed their education with at least a high school credential, including a General Educational Development (GED) certificate, was approximately $46,000. Over a person’s lifetime, this translates into a loss of approximately $670,000 in income for a person who did not complete high school compared to a person with at least a high school credential (Rouse 2007).
Pg 1
Event dropout rate:
"Specifically, the rate describes the percentage of youth ages 15 through 24 in the United States who dropped out of grades 10–12 from either public or private schools in the 12 months between one October and the next (e.g., October 2011 to October 2012)."
"...event dropout rates have trended downward, from 6.1 percent in 1972 to 3.4 percent in 2012" pg 5
Status dropout rate:
"While useful for measuring overall educational attainment among young adults in the United States, the status dropout rate is not useful as an indicator of the performance of schools because it includes those who never attended school in the United States."
From from 1972 to 2012 the Status dropout rate moved from 14.6% to 6.6%.
