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“Rather than pushing young people into a collapsing labor market,” high schools should encourage poorly prepared students to defer graduation and stay for a fifth year of skill building, writes Fordham’s Aaron Churchill in the Columbus Dispatch.
“Super seniors” would take only the academic courses they need, spending the rest of their time pursuing “career-technical options, such as credentialing programs, that match their career interests,” he proposes.
Colleges and businesses could even step up to offer space that allows students to learn outside of their former high school — an option that might help young people feel less “stuck” in high school and expose them to college and career opportunities.
I think this would be hard to sell to 18-year-olds — and hard to fund. Perhaps high schools could persuade community colleges to tailor job-training programs to new graduates.