Do too many Americans graduate high school ?

[lfromnj]

Yes.

[lfromnj]

Yes.

Do you mind elaborating on why you think this? Is it because there's too much grade inflation in schools? Are there labor shortages in lower-skilled industries?

As it stands right now, a high school degree is basically a certificate that you've had the absolute bare minimum education necessary to work a job that isn't complete trash, so I'm having trouble imagining why we'd want fewer people to have this certificate.

Because a large percent of them aren't actually competent. Fewer high school diplomas would mean companies could better differentiate between the people who actually learned stuff and those who didn't without the former having to waste money to prove it in college. Ideally speaking everyone could graduate high school but not everyone deserves to right now.

[lfromnj]

Yes.

Do you mind elaborating on why you think this? Is it because there's too much grade inflation in schools? Are there labor shortages in lower-skilled industries?

As it stands right now, a high school degree is basically a certificate that you've had the absolute bare minimum education necessary to work a job that isn't complete trash, so I'm having trouble imagining why we'd want fewer people to have this certificate.

Because a large percent of them aren't actually competent. Fewer high school diplomas would mean companies could better differentiate between the people who actually learned stuff and those who didn't without the former having to waste money to prove it in college. Ideally speaking everyone could graduate high school but not everyone deserves to right now.

If the problem is that college is too expensive for most competent Americans, we could also reduce tuition costs for them. It's not like most universities put their funds to good use, anyway.

I don't know what you'd propose for the people you think don't deserve to graduate high school, but forcing a large segment of the student population to repeat a year would be a huge financial burden on school districts, and having them all drop out would be terrible for the American economy.

First of all lower tuition costs would either mean subsidizing college which means the costs are just transferred around society through taxes or firing administration who are well entrenched into their cabals. Even if we somehow did fire admin there still is an opportunity cost for college of 4 years of limited or no earnings .

For those who can't graduate high school companies would probably change their requirements up to not require diplomas for the most basic of tasks such as an Amazon warehouse worker which actually does require a diploma. Meanwhile the remaining people with a diploma but not in college would stand out better as a more competent candidate.

[lfromnj]

Also do people forget GEDs exist?
I would even argue that someone with a GED has a higher base floor (although probably a lower ceiling) than a person with a high school diploma. I would bet a lot of high school graduates couldn't actually pass the GED.

[lfromnj]

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/03/10/new-numbers-show-falling-standards-in-american-high-schools

Springfield, in massachusetts, might seem an improbable setting for an education miracle. The city of 155,000 along the Connecticut river has a median household income half the state average; violent crime is common. Yet graduation rates at the city’s high schools are surging. Between 2007 and 2022 the share of pupils at the Springfield High School of Science and Technology who earned a diploma in four years jumped from 50% to 94%; at neighbouring Roger Putnam Vocational Technical Academy it nearly doubled to 96%.

Alas, such gains are not showing up in other academic indicators. At Springfield High scores on the sat, a college-admissions test, have tumbled by 15% over the same period. Measures of English and maths proficiency are down, too. The pass rate on advanced-placement exams has fallen to just 12% compared with a national average of 60%.

Interesting article. I assume some of the latter portion might just be a push for more students to take it.