Measure would raise Idaho dropout age to 18

BOISE – A Republican lawmaker wants Idaho to follow the lead of more than a dozen other states and require high school students to be at least 18 before they can legally drop out.

Rich Jarvis, an insurance agent from southwest Idaho, proposed legislation Tuesday before the House Education Committee to bump up the legal dropout age from 16.

Lawmakers agreed to consider the bill, but Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, said he was bothered by the fact that the measure uses the law, not incentives, to keep high school students from stopping short of graduation.

“I’m very willing to listen to a conversation, but I’m very apprehensive,” Nielsen said.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2000 that 15 percent of Idaho adults, age 25 and older, did not graduate from high school or pass the general educational development test, Jarvis said.

“We have a moral obligation to increase the graduation rate and decrease the dropout rate,” he said.

The state Department of Education estimates the proposal could cost roughly $11 million, based on the estimated 1,890 students who dropped out of grades nine through 12 last year and how much it would have cost to keep them.

Jarvis said his plan, over time, will save money.

In 2006, the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education estimated Idaho could reap $21 million in yearly savings if the male graduation rate increased by 5 percent, Jarvis said.

The advocacy group based the estimate on what the state could save on crime-related costs and what the students who did not graduate could have earned and contributed to the economy over their lifetimes with more education.

Several states, including New Jersey, are looking at raising the legal dropout age.

Eighteen states – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin – already require students to stay in school until they are 18, Jarvis said.

His bill, which would exempt students who graduate or pass the GED before they turn 18, will now go back before the Education Committee for further review.