Kathy, that sucks. I hope the rewards will feel good, though!
I'm going to be all Posty McCereal this morning, apparently. Front page of my school paper is an article about the GED, and cites the reasons current GED-prep students are leaving high school as "being in school so long," "everybody's attitude," "people, and drama," and "going." I think my favorite is "everybody's attitude."
Later on, it says "Acquiring a GED is not an automatic escape from poverty. (http://www.brown.edu)" Er. The whole Brown University Website is your source for that?