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.