For most a GED is simply not a ticket to a better life

We’re big fans of Claudio Sanchez. Few journalists in the United States have both the depth of experience and the passion that he brings to covering education issues for National Public Radio.

And a recent report about high school dropout Kenny Buchanan was no exception. As usual, Sanchez brought warmth, humor and context to the story about a man who spent three decades struggling to find and keep a job before finally landing a decent gig at an aluminum extrusion plant.

We do have one small qualm. Sanchez notes repeatedly that the subject of the story credits his recent success to a program that helped him obtain a GED.

We couldn’t be more happy to hear of Buchanan’s success. But the truth is that for most people a GED — while better than nothing — is not much better than nothing.

That’s the conclusion of Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman, who has found that the GED provides no additional value to wage earners in the labor market. In fact, Heckman found, male GED holders might actually make less than dropouts and female GED holders likely make just over 1 percent more money than dropouts do.

Others have found some limited benefits that GED holders have over dropouts. In particular, about a third go on to attempt postsecondary education (although less than 2 percent actually go on to complete four or more years of postsecondary schooling.)

But while we’re not keenon the tendency that many have to lump the GED-holders and high school diploma earners together, we must acknowledge one key point: Brown University economist John Tylerhas found that while the GED might not do much for people in terms of immediate earnings, it might hold some power in helping move holders from unemployment to employment.

And while generally that movement doesn’t mean a good job — as it appears to have exceptionally provided in Buchanan’s case — any job is better than no job at all.

But even Buchanan acknowledges a concern about the GED’s power to better the lives of high school dropouts: that the mere fact that it exists may actually encourage students to drop out who would have otherwise benefited from more schooling. “If that is true, Buchanan says, “then the net private and social benefits of obtaining a GED could be zero or negative.”