United Way and the American Human Development Project have just released the Common Good Forecaster™, a free online tool that lets people see for themselves how improving the education level has a positive impact on several key economic and social measures.  

The Common Good Forecaster projects how a change in the education profile of the nation, a state, or local community is linked to wide-ranging ripple effects in ten critical social and economic indicators. For example, what would happen over time in a local community if the dropout rate were cut in half? The Common Good Forecaster shows how this would alter key factors in health (such as life expectancy and obesity rates), in financial stability (such as median personal earnings and the poverty rate), in community involvement (such as voting and incarceration rates), and even in education results for the next generation (children's reading proficiency rates). While education is vital for getting a stable and self-supporting job, the cascade of changes extends into many other non-economic quality of life issues.

With the Common Good Forecaster, you can ask many "what if" questions, and see forecasts based on those "what ifs." The Common Good Forecaster is the first tool to allow these types of projections to be made down to the county level for many of the variables.   

Click on the Forecaster and select New Hampshire to see how the forecaster works!

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