Did you leave high school or college? Did you know you can still finish?
Sometimes things in life just happen that keep us from our goals. Maybe we had to stop going to high school to work to support our family, or we were attending a trade school or community college and lost our job so we could not afford to attend anymore. Or maybe, we were attending a four-year college while working full time and it just became too much with trying to raise a family.
We know that in Missouri, most people without a high school diploma earn about $550 a week. Just by completing high school or passing a high school equivalent test, a person can increase their weekly income to about $730. With a two-year degree or a certificate for a specific trade, the weekly income is about $860. For a four-year degree, the average weekly income is about $1,190. Springfield has several programs to help people who stopped attending school or college to return and finish.
Springfield Public Schools has a “Drop Out Recovery Program” that is available for SPS students who stopped attending high school and are under the age of 21. Students can finish high school and receive a diploma. SPS also offers the HiSET (high school equivalent) exam. If a person is over age 21, MERS Goodwill (Excel Center) has a tuition-free high school for adults over age 21 and the adult earns an actual high school diploma. Adult learners, in their program, can also earn college credits and a variety of industry specific certificates to help increase earnings. The Excel Center is a free public high school with flexible class schedules and “life coaches” to help adult learners complete their program.
Ozarks Technical Community College has adult high school programs and other programs to help individual’s complete college or certificate programs even if they stopped attending previously. Springfield’s local four-year colleges have similar programs to help adult learners who stopped attending college return and finish. Some people who have attended a four-year college and stopped attending may have earned enough college credit hours for an associate degree. The college can review any person’s situation and help design a solution to earn a different type of degree with credits already earned or to return and finish.
SPS and the colleges offer a variety of online classes to make it easier for individuals to complete their programs that can increase earnings. All these efforts are part of the community’s goal to increase postsecondary attainment – additional education beyond high school. Springfield has programs to completed school or college and they even have short-term training programs such as Change 1000 operated through the Missouri Job Center. The Prosper Springfield website, prosperspringfield.org has information under “Get Help” that can help with almost any area of need related to education, health, housing, job/financial assistance and transportation.
Prosper Springfield is a collective impact initiative focused on a shared community vision to improve economic mobility in the Springfield community. The Prosper Springfield mission is to build community relationships and align community resources to create pathways that help move people to prosperity. For more information about Prosper Springfield, contact Francine Pratt at 417-888-2020.