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About the series: Every Monday, from Feb. 9 to March 30, WBUR’s Morning Edition features Project Dropout reports. We’ll look at some of the reasons why kids leave school, why the dropout rate isn’t getting lower, how it affects all of us and what we should do about it. More information »

By Monica Brady-Myerov (WBUR)

It’s a school problem centered on Massachusetts cities — for many people across the state, that’s the view of the high-school dropout rate. The fact is, the dropout rates are higher in cities. For example, nearly 15 percent of students in the city of Lawrence drop out out each year, compared with many suburban towns which lose fewer than 1 percent of students a year. Analysts say the problem needs to be addressed in all communities with high schools.

NEIL SULLIVAN: We all have a stake in reversing the high school drop out crisis.

Neil Sullivan is executive director of the Boston Private Industry Council, a public-private partnership that connects businesses with Boston Public Schools.

SULLIVAN: Each high-school dropout costs the taxpayer $455,000 over a lifetime. The cost of public dependency, which ranges from transitional assistance payments to health care subsidies to incarceration and the lost taxes that comes from lower lifetime earnings.

Over the coming weeks we’ll take a close look at the dropout crisis in a series of reports called “Project Dropout.”

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