The lightbulb's getting dim

Please tell me that this sign is wrong.

Toni and I were driving back home from Midtown Atlanta and we saw a billboard on I-20 that said that 32% of students in Georgia don't graduate high school. What? Are there that many dropouts?

I have subsequently looked at some of the statistics and here is what I found. Apparently, there is some new formula for calculating the graduation rate and it puts Georgia and some others at the low end of the totem pole. Look at the map above. The states in yellow have a lower than 70% graduation rate. Basically, this is calculated as the number of kids who get diplomas in 4 years vs the number who enrolled.
This led me on a statistical scavenger hunt.

This is a map of our current unemployment. Do you see a correlation? The darker areas are the highest unemployment areas. Could this possibly be suggesting that our employment is based (at least in part) on our level of education? If this is true, There might even be a relationship between our education and our income. Please insert all of the sarcastic tone that you can muster here.

How about that. The lighter colored states have the lower per capita income.

I could go on with this analysis, but I think I will let this sink in. Do you ever wonder why the checkout girl seems stupid? That is because she is. Does it shock you that some of my neighbors think Montreal is in North Carolina? They do. Do you wonder why we have so many people living off of our hard earned taxes. That is because just over 33% (in Georgia) do not even have a high school diploma. As a result, no one will hire them. I sure didn't. Would you?