Entrepreneurship classes: By the numbers

40,000: The number of high school students enrolled this year in entrepreneurship classes overseen by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship; it’s up from 4,000 in 1996

$9,634: The difference in annual income between a high school dropout ($17,299) and a high school graduate ($26,933) in 2005

68.3%: Share of public school students in California who graduated from high school in 2007-08, the latest school year for which data is available

Sources: National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship; U.S. Census Bureau; California Education Department