(RNN) – An increasing number of teenagers are graduating high school, but they are also dealing with the woes of one of the most important elements of the "real world" – money.
Rising college tuition costs and a job market made more competitive by an economy that is improving at a snail's pace have created an interesting predicament for young people as well as their potential employers.
The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University combined with America's Promise Alliance and Civic Enterprises to compile "Building a Grad Nation," the report that studied graduation rates.
The report found that 1-in-4 students in the U.S. still do not gradate high school. That is, however, an improvement from 10 years ago when only 72 percent of students left high school with a diploma.
But in this economy, getting a high school diploma is barely the beginning of the battle.
Graduating teenagers face the headache of trying to figure out how to pay for higher education that is getting, for lack of a better word, higher.
"At the current rate of employment, it's going to take a really long time to pay back those student loans," said Gary Hoover, professor of economics at the University of Alabama. "That's something that a lot of students think about afterwards. They seem to be oblivious to that while they're here."
From 2002 to 2010, the average price for four-year college tuition rose from $13,600 to about $21,000 per year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 1980, it cost about $3,000 per year to attend a four-year college.
While tuition costs at two-year institutions are rising as well, they still make a less substantial dent in the wallet. From 2002 to 2010, tuition at two-year colleges went from $5,700 to $8,500.
Students could face even more financial pressure once they graduate college with the interest on federally subsidized student loans threatening to double after July.
The rate would equate to a tax increase of $1,000 per year, President Barack Obama said recently during a speech at the University of North Carolina.
Obama urged Congress to extend the tuition tax credit and help draw in the reins on a national student loan debt that has already approached $1 trillion.
He also put pressure on colleges by calling into question tuition prices that continually rise.
"It's not enough just to increase student aid," Obama said. "We can't just keep subsidizing college tuition, or else we'll run out of money. Colleges and universities also have to do their part. We've put colleges on notice that if you can't keep tuition from going up every single year, you get reduced federal funding."
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently visited Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, IA, to announce the reauthorizing of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006.
The move would restructure career and technical education in an effort to help bring America out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
"In the knowledge-based economy, lifelong learning is so critical. And that means that the traditional mission of career and technical education has to change," Duncan said. "It can no longer be about earning a diploma and landing a job after high school. The goal of CTE should be that students earn an industry certification and postsecondary certificate or degree — and land a job that leads to a successful career."
The perception has long been that two-year colleges were the last alternatives for students who could not get into the universities of their choice or that they were feeder systems for larger schools.
But that perception is quickly fading.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the jobs that will experience the fastest growth by 2020 will be in the healthcare, clerical and construction fields. Several of those types of jobs require associate degrees.
That may leave high school seniors little choice other than to weigh enrollment at technical colleges more seriously.
"Absolutely, we're going to be forced now to look at things differently," Hoover said. "We're going to do it kicking and screaming, but that's the direction we're going … We're now seeing waiting lists for the waiting lists at two-year colleges."
All this could ultimately have an effect on the age of qualified workers in the labor force.
The number of workers age 25-54 – considered primary working age – is projected to decline 3.2 percent by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of workers age 16-24 is expected to decline 2.4 percent.
Workers age 55 and older, by contrast, are expected to make a nearly 6 percent increase in the labor force.
More than half of business executives at large companies and two-thirds of small business proprietors say it is difficult to recruit employees with the skills, training, and education their companies need, according to a labor statistics survey.
That could mean workers who want to stay in the workforce or older people who want to re-enter may have to attend some type of school to learn an additional skill.
It could also portend that high school students in the near future are facing more discouragement from attending college, with prohibitive cost being a major factor.
Either way you look at it, people looking to further their education in the next decade will have to face the reality that a lingering economy has painted.
Formerly, people with minimal education could start at the bottom and move their way up the ranks with patience and hard work.
But it is evident now employers value education over diligence.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that jobs requiring a high school diploma will experience the slowest growth between 2010 and 2020. Those jobs include postal workers, sewing and shoe machine operators, telephone and switchboard operators and correspondence clerks.
The United States Postal Service is not immune to the tough situation that has faced government agencies and private businesses alike.
USPS spokesperson Mark Saunders pointed to 2006 as a benchmark year for the postal service. Mail volume peaked at 212 billion pieces, but since then there has been a gradual decline, largely due to email and other digital services.
"We're looking to reduce by 150,000 jobs in the next five years," Saunders said. "For us, it's drastic. Up to 2006, the volume grew and grew."
A tougher road lies ahead for people with no type of diploma.
High school dropouts stand to earn about 25 percent less than high school graduates over the course of their careers, and less than half of what college graduates make.
"Despite the ever-increasing cost of college, it is still the best investment you can make in your future," said Hoover. "Still, the best argument we can make is that a person without a college education will have a $1 million difference in earnings over their lifetime than someone with a college degree. That sells itself."
Copyright 2012 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
High school students are graduating at a growing rate, but they face college costs that are at an all-time high and a tough economy. (Source: MGN/NStar Scholarships)
