The Kentucky House Education Committee approved a bill that would raise the State's dropout age from 16 to 18 on Tuesday. The bill will now go to the House floor for a vote.
This is the third straight year the legislation has been proposed in Frankfort, but lawmakers and educators supporting the bill say they're confident this is the year it gets passed, primarily because there is more bi-partisan support for the bill this year.
Current GED candidates at the Jessamine County Adult Education and Family Literacy Center say looking back on their lives, they wish they would of stayed in school and graduated with their friends. Others say its been virtually impossible to find work without a GED.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, people who get their GED's or High School Diplomas, on average make about ten-thousand dollars more a year than those that do not.
Opponents to the bill say there is no way to fund the mandate and will only cost schools millions more to educate the extra students.
According the Kentucky Education Department anywhere from six to seven-thousand Kentucky students drop out of school each year.
The State's dropout rate has been at 16, with parental consent, since 1920.
