The COVID-19 public health crisis laid bare just how critical public schools are in American life. The pandemic made clear that many K-12 schools offer more than classroom learning alone; many also provide social and emotional support, health and wellness services and basic preparation for life beyond school.
High school graduates contribute to local economies and society at large, reducing the burden on the social safety net and contributing to the tax base that fuels public services. Higher earners can more easily qualify for lower-cost credit and avoid excessive debt.
Producing high school graduates requires substantial investment. Overall, state and local governments spend 18% of their budgets on elementary and secondary education — double what they spend on health care and hospitals.
Knowing the benefits of graduating high school, MoneyGeek analyzed state and local spending compared to the number of high school graduates in every state to understand how costly it is to create a graduate. Nationally, it costs an average of $208,000 per high school graduate. To put these investments into context, we looked at other measures of educational effectiveness, such as the percent of students who take the SAT or ACT and how students perform on those tests.
At MoneyGeek, we believe teaching kids about personal finance can help people achieve financial security at any age, so we also looked at the percent of students who get personal finance education.