Why should we invest in education?
Economists, business leaders, and educators agree: Minnesota’s prosperity over the past forty years has been driven largely by our investment in human capital. An educated workforce is good for businesses and families as well as for our overall well-being.
Minnesota is not alone in facing the challenges of maintaining a robust economy in a globalizing marketplace, but with demographic changes ahead, it faces potentially greater consequences. At the current rate we are producing students with post-secondary degrees, within two decades Minnesota will not have enough skilled workers to sustain our economy and remain competitive.
Currently, nearly 10,000 Minnesota students drop out of high school each year, and with each new “class” of dropouts, Minnesota faces aggregate costs of $10.6 billion over the course of their lives. Not only does the dropout have less access to job opportunities, but they have a higher reliance on public programs, such as welfare and Medicaid, and are more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system.
Educational research and economic analysis indicate that if we make Smart InvestmentsSM in Minnesota’s Students the costs will more than pay for themselves through higher earnings for each additional graduate, greater state tax revenue from higher wages and economic growth, and lower social costs paid by taxpayers.
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