In other words, the career and employment prospects for dropouts are dismal. Those who do not complete high school face difficulties in making successful steps in other transitions to adult life. Dropouts have among the lowest voting rates and among the lowest levels of participation. Lack of informed, citizens is dangerous to the American prospect. According to the United States Census Bureau, Hispanics are projected to become the largest ethnic minority in the United States by the early twenty-first century.
Dropouts diminish our democracy, our society, and their own opportunities.
This counters the assumption of many who argue that Latinos are not really very interested in finishing school. The Census reports that because of demographic growth there will be at least one million more elementary students many of them Hispanic in our schools by the end of the decade. Without quick intervention, technology, trade, and changing policy will increase the number of children, many of them Hispanic, growing in poverty. There are shortages of teachers with meaningful proficiency in more than English. The retirement of the large proportion of current teachers originally hired to teach the baby boomers will intensify attrition of the teachers with the most classroom experience.