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<p>Currently there is a large economic and social penalty for being a “high school dropout”. Therefore many people who dropped out are deficient in some way, in terms of brains or character, or they would have stuck it out. Employers use the high school diploma not as a sign of academic achievement but as a way to filter out undesirables. As evidence of this, employers of high school grads rarely ask for high school transcripts or scores from the NCLB-mandated tests.</p>
<p>If we could remove the stigma of being a “high school dropout”, lots of normal people would stop school before grade 12, and employers would be willing to at least consider “dropouts” because the pool of dropouts would include many good workers. Employers did not shun dropouts in 1950 for this reason.</p>
<p>What do you learn in high school that makes you better able to work in Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, or a grocery store?</p>