In purely economic terms, look at the difference in earning capacity based on educational achievement.  Someone with a bachelor’s degree will earn nearly one million dollars more in 1999 dollars over their 40 year work life  than the high school grad. That is the difference between a comfortable life with piano lessons for your kids and living without health insurance, driving a beater car and feeding your kids soup and crackers for dinner nite after nite.
	And we do have drop outs in this state. A recent study by the Gates Foundation shows that half of all African American, Hispanic and Native American kids in our state are dropping out of high school.
	And notice how the value of a bachelors degree and advanced degree continues to increase even though our workforce is becoming more educated.  When we talk about the “two” Washingtons it is not east vs west; urban vs rural; tech vs agriculture.
	This slide is the two Washingtons. The top tier can participate successfully in the technology based economy and the bottom tier cannot.
	To me this slide explains why Tim Eyman wins elections, and it challenges us to work very hard to give every child in this state a chance at a college education.
	Thank you.
	40 year synthetic earnings estimates for full-time, year-round workers, in 1999 dollars:
	High school dropouts:  1.0 m
	HS degree: 1.2 m
	Some college: 1.5 m
	Associates degree: 1.6 m
	BA degree: 2.1 m (more than one-third than workers who did not finish college and nearly 2x as workers with a HS degree)
	MA degree: 2.5 m
	Doctoral degree: 3.4 m
	Professional degrees: 4.4 m
	Men vs. women: difference in salary between men and women:  $350,000 for high school dropouts.  $450,000 for HS graduates and about 2x that amount for BA degree holders.  Men with professional degrees may expect to earn almost $2m more than their female counterparts over their work life.