Haves vs. Have Nots

Two interesting things on the GOOD blog this evening:

1. The job market is bad news bears if you're between the ages of 16 to 24. But while circumstances may seem bad for us college graduates, they become positively dire for high school dropouts. Looking at (approximately) June '09 through January '10 on the graph below, note the 4% unemployment rate for those with at least a bachelors degree as opposed to the 16% unemployment rate for those who have not completed high school. I realize that the "less than high school" category also includes current high school students who have been squeezed out of summer and after school jobs by their college-age counterparts. But high school dropouts do make up a large proportion of this bracket.
The even scarier statistic is the year-over-year change. Kids who have not completed high school are looking at a 8% change in unemployment compared to last year. Meanwhile, young people with a bachelors degree are facing a 2% year-over-year change. I wish many of my tenth graders would understand that NOW IS A TERRIBLE TIME TO DROP OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. And the future for high school dropouts isn't looking any better.

2. Utah State Senator Chris Buttars wants to trim the state budget by making senior year optional for high school students. He claims this would save $70 million for the state of Utah, which is currently undergoing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not bad, right?

While states tend to require only three years worth of high school credits in most subjects (for example, three years of math) for graduation, thereby making it feasible to graduate in three years, I worry that high school students who graduate early would lose out on that final synthesizing year of high school. True, high school seniors catch senioritis in droves. But, at the same time, I think many seniors do use their final year to embark on a community service project, conduct some sort of research, or merely apply the lessons they've learned throughout their secondary education as they begin to seriously consider life after high school.

One of my favorite Brown policies is its insistence that students complete all four years of undergrad. In other words, it's really, really difficult to graduate in three or three and a half years at Brown. I found that this forced undergrads to take classes they wouldn't have otherwise, devote more time to a thesis senior year, and thoroughly enjoy the four-year liberal arts experience. This may be my inner Brunonian speaking, but I truly feel there's a lot to be gained by completing four years of undergrad. By the same token, senior year of high school is of immense importance, budget shortfall or not.