Australia is often touted as a wealthy and egalitarian country, and there is some truth to this, but it is also very much an instance of a ‘dual economy’ where a few are benefitting and many are being left out and are indeed Living on the Edge (Smyth & Wrigley, 2013). The underlying rationale of this paper is one of finding a voice for the young precariat beyond forms of ‘residualising’ that treats them effectively as ‘social waste’. With this in mind, the paper will examine, through ethnographic data, the way in which some schools in areas designated as ‘disadvantaged’ have become complicit in fostering a culture of early school leaving through defining students as ‘at risk’, and personalizing and pathologizing their precarity through re-engagement programs, rather than ‘coming clean’ on the real nature of precarity and the forces producing it. The paper will look at how some young people are finding ways of ‘speaking back’ and developing a voice in an inhospitable policy climate.