Do the Math

New York, NY

 

Delta Air Lines has done the math.  They had two employees working through the TSA screening line checking to see when each traveler’s flight departed.  Those who were in danger of not making it through security in time were escorted to the express line.  They must figure that rescheduling a flight and shifting folks from one itinerary to another is too costly.  Costly enough to hire people (or at least shift people around) to expedite the security screening process.

 

Have we done the math for our students?  When will we realize that the cost of a student dropping out of school is substantial enough that we ought to invest early to prevent it from happening in the first place.  The costs of lost productivity, lost income revenue, retraining, social services, and possible incarceration are enormous and would easily pay for the needed staff and resources to ensure that they make their flight in the first place.

 

Not to mention the enormous lifelong cost to each individual traveler who may never make it to his or her destination.

 

In a system that so heavily values mathematics, why don’t we do a little math ourselves?  I think we would find that the investment would be worth it.  I’ll even let you use a calculator.