Michigan Votes Forum

 Finally, some common sense in Lansing!  PLEASE return the compulsory age to 16.  States with a compulsory age of 18 have seen NO educational benefits.

And what would be the goal of such legislation? To increase the number of high school dropouts and provide American citizens to the migrant farm worker force, or is this just an attempt to save money on education?

susanmercy, please reference a study that supports your statement that no educational benefits are seen for setting the compulsary school  age at 18.

Philip Oreopoulos finds in his study, “Do Dropouts Drop Out Too Soon?”
that students required to attend an extra year of schooling experience a 12
percent increase in earnings. In addition to increased earnings, the students
are less likely to report being unemployed, having health problems, being
depressed, and working in lower-skilled jobs. Oreopoulos shows that people
with more schooling report higher levels of satisfaction with their lives overall,
even when he controls for factors such as income. This study can be found at:
Philip Oreopoulos. “Do Dropouts Drop Out Too Soon?” NBER Working
Paper W10155 (December 2003). An updated working draft of the paper
is available at http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/oreo/research/dropouts/
details.htm.

This is exactly the slippery slope I feared with the bill to remove Algebra II from our required High School curriculum.

There is absolutely NO evidence that forcing every child to take advanced math will result in anything positive.  Students who need it should take it.  Student who don't, shouldn't.  Let each student take advanced classes in their chosen areas of expertise...Unless you think every student should take advanced Shakespeare, you have no argument, because mandating advanced classes in one area but not others negates the theory of multiple intelligences.  Or... are you arguing that all students should take advanced math because YOU say so.