Gravel: High School Should End At 16

In an editorial in the New York Sun long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel has some radical takes on high school and young people in the workplace.

Children are different than they were 30 years ago. They reach puberty much earlier and they're exposed to a lot early on that it doesn't make sense to maintain the traditional 12-year academic track. We need to start schooling children earlier and getting them into the workforce sooner. Parents should have the option of entering two-year-olds into school programs that offer reading instruction. Starting at 10 years old, students should remain in school until 5 o'clock with mandatory extracurricular activities and supervised individual study.

High school should start at 13 years and end at 16. All college-bound poor students should be given tuition assistance. Those who don't want to attend college should receive publicly funded technical training. Tax breaks should be given to companies that hire and train teenagers to perform technology-based jobs. The right way to fight outsourcing is not by erecting trade barriers but by preparing our youth to compete.

(This is crossposted at Iowa Independent.com)