7. A high school principal wants to predict the number of students who will drop out of school so he can get funding for support services.

Year Students dropout
2004=217
2005=202
2006=199
2007=185
2008=180
2009=163

He determined the equation that
represents this data as y = -10x + 216,
where x represents the years since
2004, and y is the number of students
who drop out.
Use this equation to help him predict
the number of students who will drop
out in 2012?

A) -20, 2996 students
B) 21 students
C) 136 students
D) 156 students