| The average high school grad earns $52,600, while the average high school drop-out earns $17,300, says former governor Bob Wise, in his recent book "Raising the Grade."
Wise must not have been talking about income in West Virginia, the state ranks near the bottom in per capita and median family income.
He says America's school system is falling behind many other nations in education.
He says drop-outs, who once managed to find a niche in the millions of blue-collar jobs in the USA, are now likely to remain jobless, be eligible for welfare programs and get in trouble with the law.
Most of those blue-collar opportunities have vanished, going abroad in a globalized economy.
Wise, now president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, sees high schools as being unable to perform.
Wise says one-third of USA students are slipping through the cracks, and that other nations do a much better job educating them.
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