In 2004-05, the latest year for which Department of Education statistics are available, some schools had [dropout] rates almost twice the state average. In many, the rate has been growing.
The highest in the state was Wai'anae High, with a dropout rate of 29.2 percent. That means nearly three of every 10 students who started ninth grade together four years earlier left school without graduating.
Close behind were McKinley High and Nanakuli High and Intermediate, with respective dropout rates of 26.5 percent and 26.6 percent, followed by Farrington High at 22.6 percent.
The social cost is heavy. These young people may be doomed to low-paying jobs or menial labor, and may never have the earning power to support a family or the training to contribute what they might have to society. They're also more likely to be the ones involved with drugs, unwedded pregnancy, gangs and criminal activity.
A survey of 716 male inmates of the 1,003 men incarcerated at Halawa Medium Security Correctional Facility in 2005 showed that 35.8 percent did not have high school diplomas, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety.
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