Gov. Bobby Jindal approved legislation Thursday creating a new public school curriculum with lowered academic standards, waving aside objections from education advocates who say the change will produce high school graduates who lack basic English and math skills.
Bobby JindalUnder the new law, students 15 and older could leave the standard curriculum and instead take a “career track” if they have parental approval. They would face easier requirements for graduation and a curriculum less geared toward college preparation. It would also allow eighth graders to advance to ninth grade without passing the state’s high-stakes standardized test.
Graduates would get a “career option” diploma, different from the state’s standard diploma, designed to get them into a two-year technical school or community college but not four-year schools.
Via Mister Justin.
I’ll just bet this “curriculum” was tailor made by the Pentagon. And they’re counting on Louisiana to provide them the next wave of fresh meat, when voluntary enlistments dry up, in the future.
If there really were any trade jobs going unfulfilled. It’s because employers would rather hire kids, with little need for health benefits, and retirement pay. Than staff with older and more experienced workers, who do. When I was in my 20s, in the Air Force. I knew I was already too old to be hired as a computer programmer, in some civilian company. Because they mainly hire them straight from college, in their teens. Just like Microsoft did. After 24, you’re screwed in the American labor market.
Vocational training is a fine idea for many students. Graduating plumbers or auto mechanics who can’t read very well, is not.
I do hope they also continue to include the sex education course: “When a Sister is More Than a Sister” or at least the simpler class, “What’s a Cousin, Anyway?”
All they will probably do on the job is sit there and play video games all day long on their Wii or whatever
#18: comment #17 had it right, Median is better than Mean for this kind of discussion. Mean only implies the same thing when the distribution is symmetrical, and I don’t know if we can assume that here. I’m sure it was a joke – anyone been to Lake Wobegon recently?
I had a bizarre education->work transition, which I only noticed in retrospect. I did pretty well in school, got university-level grades, but I never got to go to university for financial reasons. We were living in South Africa at the time, with little money, and there was absolutely no State backing for 3rd-level study. (I’m only getting to go to university now, 25 years later, in Ireland.)
So I took an apprenticeship in “instrumentation”, and you know what? It wasn’t half bad. It was work, and study, but I also got to do exciting stuff at a steel plant. Everything from tapping an iron furnace to seeing steel getting rolled in to sheets. This was the period when industry was getting more computerized, so the definition of “instrumentation” was changing. Anyone who could understand this PC stuff was in demand. It wasn’t all “sub-college” people, and smart people could rise through the ranks and do pretty well, though you would eventually run in to academic requirements for becoming an engineer or manager, and need to study further.
However, I don’t know how that would work these days, now that many industries no longer exist in their previous form. If every US State implemented this type of program, who would take all those students on? As already pointed out, not everyone is suited for college, and that does NOT mean that such people are stupid! For example, a good welder who is also smart can learn additional skills over time, such as underwater work, and make an extremely good living from it – and perhaps do a management degree later.
All it takes is a GED to get into a technical school. Many community colleges will allow to to enroll, completing the GED as you go. I’ve always respected a UK degree more than a US. Many US students would freak out taking a comprehensive week long final to obtain a degree. A First Class degree is quite an accomplishment. There are too many students in college. In most state schools they watered it down to a high school level and hold the kids hands. Serious education is a competitive game, and you need to grow up fast. If you can’t pull off a 2.5 or higher that first year, you need to go.
The church will teach them all they need to know. Cheap labor to compete with Chinese cheap labor. The republican dream.
#22 A well trained machinist will never lack a boat payment, much less the mortgage payment. T he machine that make the machines always needs a replacement part or a new die. And with a large number of the baby boom age machinists nearing retirement, many companies are starting to get worried and are considering apprenticeships to train their replacements.
But to reinforce some earlier comments, jobs like these demand a good understanding of geometry and math and also the ability to read and comprehend complex instructions, manuals, etc.
#25 Au contraire, mon fraire. Cheap votes, the Democrat dream. And don’t leave out the Dems. on that cheap labour stuff.
# 24 RTaylor said, “I’ve always respected a UK degree more than a US.”
I can’t really agree with you, RT. I spent three years with my British wife as she went through her Master’s program in Social Work. I’ve seen high school course work that was more rigorous! On the other hand, maybe it’s the nature of social work to be juvenile and dogmatic. Her thesis was a joke. Not a very funny one either.
Odd thing: I never said any of this to her and she STILL divorced me as soon as she finished. Personally, I think she waited too long…
Having a less-academic “trade” track would be a good idea if conservatives didn’t think is was a brilliant idea to give all our good paying jobs to the commie Chinese.
#29 Steve Jobs doesn’t strike me as conservative. Neither does Holywood.