This article highlights San Diego's dropout problem and how much it's costing the city and the state. Most San Diegans do not realize the enormous impact high school dropouts on their city. The California Dropout Research Project, located at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has estimated the lifetime cost of one class or cohort of dropouts for the state of California at $24,212,395,755. They also project that this one year's crop of California's dropouts will go on to commit 113,954 violent crimes. The California Dropout Research Project has also made projections for the City of San Diego. For one class of the city's dropouts, they project lifetime costs of $534,020,025. And they project that this one year of dropouts will commit 3,879 violent crimes. For the full high school population, multiply these numbers by four and the cost is over 2 billion dollars and 15,000 violent crimes. The reason that these numbers are shocking is because the dropout issue has been kept under wraps. There is a remedy that over time can reduce high school dropout numbers. Career academies graduate 90 percent of their students, including disadvantaged students. These small schools within high schools use career themes to engage their students in learning. Career academies address the root cause of the dropout issue, and this is necessary to obtain savings and reductions in crime.