I'm no education expert, but allowing qualified 10th graders to test out of their final two years of high school and go straight to college certainly seems like a good idea. The report envisions a three-track system, in which students test out into a community college or vocational program, and only those who want to continue in high school or are seeking admission to a four-year institution would go on. You can retest at any time in the future.
It's not clear that the final two years of generalist education are terribly useful for many students, and exempting those who don't need it would save -- literally -- billions of dollars, even as funneling them towards community college and technical programs would increase their long-term earning prospects and lower their likelihood of dropping out from a curriculum that doesn't seem relevant to them. In any case, I'm not a huge fan of high school as currently composed -- which actually relates to what brings me to Chicago this week -- so more on this soon.
