education in california

first off, i'll say that this is sort of an extension of the high school exit exam post, but not really. but anyway, continuing on now, i present a plan for education that could potentially save billions of dollars while also generating new revenues and of course helping to better achieve the goal of actually having people learn. because the current system in california is set to soon drive away companies due to a lack of an educated workforce to replace their aging and retiring baby boomer employees.
here in california, we have an exit exam that all high school students must pass to receive their diploma. not even going to argue the fairness or not of it in this blog, that's an entirely different animal. but seeing that it can be taken as early as end of sophomore year of high school, why are they then required to go to school for another two years still if they pass it? instead of having them languish for two more years, why not have greater access to associate degree programs that the students can then do for the remaining two years of "high school" for those who pass? for those who have not passed, individual metrics would be available and it could be determined if they were just blown out the water completely, or were close on all counts, or simply just failed one section of it. then they would have classes designed to review the concepts to prepare them for another taking of the test. in this way, we don't waste two years of the passers life, but also don't dismiss those who fail.
as it is, quite a decent percentage of californians just drop out of high school anyway so giving them their diploma at 10th grade would decrease the dropout rate and also decrease the total cost of high school expenses to school district budgets. even paying a modest fee at a community college would save billions over sending people for two more years that are essentially unnecessary since they are not even given a diploma based on them. furthermore, after going to both high school and being in college, many lower-division classes in university are basically the exact same classes that are at high school level, but with a few additional concepts thrown in. so why waste time educating for something that will be retaught again next year?
and on that line of thought, why are there basically the equivalent of 8th grade classes being offered at cal-state campuses? (and uc? i don't go to uc and haven't looked much into it.) that takes precious instructors who could be teaching college-level classes and basically squanders their time on stuff that should've been learned long time ago. now the only exception to this would be at any campuses where there is no readily accessible community college within say a 25-30 mile radius.

let's do healthcare

people are afraid of government run healthcare here in america and point to canada as the prime example of what isn't wanted, which is really mostly just the wait times. beyond the fact that that isn't really what is currently proposed, let's also look at that wait time fear. immediately, we're not going to see any improvements. but over time, as more people receive that "cradle-to-grave" healthcare, they will get more preventative care done earlier in life where there is time to wait instead of reactive care when something goes wrong. which of course will usually turn out cheaper. anyway, link relevant and related: http://bit.ly/19ksdC

california budget

again, they're on the verge of sending out IOUs to their creditors here in the state of california. meanwhile, they continue to slash services and funding all across the board, but disproportionately on the poor than the rich. and the legislature is insisting they know what we the people want, but that is seeming less and less true every day. here's a concept that works: the legislature goes ahead and works without pay for at least a year. not just long enough to get the budget balanced again, but to also make sure that the new balanced budget is actually working. then afterwards, their pay needn't be three times the state average. bring it in line with something more reasonable, like say ~$80,000/year at the most. most of them are also professionals as well so it's not as if they'll exactly be paupers all of a sudden if they don't get their state checks.