Freshman year. Your first year of high school. The year when everything and every one is new and scary. Sophomore year is when you start to get the hang of things. Junior year is the year when you work yourself to death getting your transcript perfectly polished for college. Then Senior year rolls around. Senioritis sets in, and you get ready to graduate. Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior. Everyone knows that’s how it goes. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if the last year of high school was optional? What if you could go straight to college after just three years of high school? Would you?
In Utah, this idea could become a reality. Republican State Senator Chris Buttars put forth a bill that proposed making the 12th grade optional in the effort to reduce Utah’s $700 million dollar budget deficit. Buttars projected this proposal to save $60 million dollars if put into practice by the 2010-2011 school year. Within the educational community, there’s a bit of controversy over the bill. Supporters of the bill believe that students will benefit from the optional last year of high school. Those who have fulfilled their requirements can graduate early, eliminating Senioritis and saving the state money. Those who oppose the bill believe that the 12th grade is a fundamental and necessary step in high school. John Balden, president of the Utah chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, called the bill “very shortsighted.” Others believe that by eliminating the 12th grade, some students will enter college at 17 and not be ready to face the real world.
Personally, I think making Senior year optional is a wonderful idea. When applying to college, admissions officers look at the applicants grades up to their Junior year. By the time senior year comes around, most students have gotten all of their core classes out of the way. They spend their last year fulfilling performing arts or P.E. credits. If a student has completed all necessary classes, I think they have earned the option of skipping 12th grade. I myself am currently in an alternative high school. I currently attend Independence High School in San Francisco. Here, I attend class once a week and I independent study all of my classes. I have also recently passes the California High School Proficiency Exam, which in the state of California is equivalent to earning a high school diploma. If I have the equivalent of a high school diploma and I can teach myself my high school curriculum, shouldn’t that mean I’m ready for college?
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