Curious, how is high school dropout in Germany ? From what I have seen our two countries have quite similar rate of people that end up in prison and they are both small (about 13% of US rate). However here if there are some problematic students the system is still trying to push them do finish the school. Since today without a high school you are probably nothing and therefore you are likely to become a problem. Therefore since you have lower amount of people in prisons you may as well give them the right to vote and the vaccines to reduce social alienation. What also matters when they eventually come out. (free college also probably helps in all this)
I mean this graph pretty well explains certain attitudes in this thread when it comes to this set of issues.
The dropout rate in Germany is actually similar to that of the US, from what I could gather, (currently 6.9%)"
,but the educational system is very different. Education is down to the individual Länder (federal states) but overall similar. You have a total of nine or ten years of compulsory education but different types of schools tailored to the students' skills and needs. After that you normally need to attend a higher secondary school or a trade school or start a traineeship. So actually 12 years altogether.
It is a classist system where kids of people with higher education tend to receive higher education and children of laborers receive little education. But The quality of the trade schools and trainee programs is supposedly quite good by comparison. Both schools and universities are free and there are many ways you can "upgrade" at some point and continue your education. The formal and financial barriers are quite low but the social ones are high.
However, the state does tend to make an effort to offer educational opportunities and you can continue your education even in prison (both academic and learning a trade).
The dropout rate varies a lot by region. I live in a wealthy part of the country and my city actually has the lowest dropout rate in all of Germany. It is highest in the East and poorer regions and much higher among (even second or third generation) migrants than among "natives". I think a lot of it comes down to perspective. In the wealthy regions you have many options and good reason to study but even the less capable or motivated are taken care of by the system. In poorer regions young people have much less to work for and Look forward to.
And (from what I read a few years ago) the only OECD country with an even greater correlation between socioeconomic status of a family and actual educational outcome of their children than Germany is Mexico. That's why I called the system classist. Those at the bottom might be better taken care of than elsewhere, but those at the top stay among themselves (most university students are children of university graduates, etc and they even tend to marry among themselves).
Germany's educational system is relatively complex with a lot of pros and cons.
Especially those in urban areas who tend to be poorer, and where the lockdowns are more stringently enforced by the government. Many of these orders are specifically titled "stay home" orders, at least here in the US, implying avoidance of being outside. In fact, in the spring lockdowns, many outdoor parks were closed. Most recently, in Los Angeles, even walking outside has been banned.
