Florida High School students to pick a major (proposal from Jeb Bush)

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/AP: High School students to pick a major
Governor pushing for mandate which makes incoming freshmen declare
Thursday, March 23, 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- Lila and Andrew Zoghbi are bored five days a week in classes at Chiles High School.

It's not that they are slackers. In fact, they are honor students with high ambitions. Lila, 15, plans to be an engineer, and her brother, 17, wants to design video games. The problem, they say, is that school is not giving them the career preparation they want....

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Students like the Zoghbis would get an education more tailored to their career plans under a proposal from Gov. Jeb Bush that education experts say would make Florida the first state to require incoming high school freshmen to declare a major, just like college students.

Bush said the plan would help prepare students better for the real world and reduce the dropout rate by making school more interesting. Last year, nearly 3 percent of Florida's 800,000 high school students dropped out....

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Some educators support the plan, while others fear it will deprive students of a broad liberal arts education and put even more pressure on young people....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/03/23/highschool.majors.ap/index.html