Yes, as one who speaks at many homeschool conventions, I know what you say, although I graduated high school (public) at 16, college at 20, and got a Masters and Ph.D. in a total of about 3 years. So it’s not magic bullet. Anyone CAN do it with proper determination and focus.
LS,
You are absolutely right! Each year spent in college means a year of lost income for the young person and debt accumulated by the student or money paid out by the student, parents, or taxpayers for tuition.
The following is an essay, “Down with the four year College Degree”, by Charles Murray. He recommends abandoning the B.S. and B.A. degree completely and moving to credentialing exams.
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/10/06/charles-murray/down-with-the-four-year-college-degree/
While Charles Murray focuses exclusively on college and university education, why not start credentialing exams far sooner? The following are some ideas that would get kids out of school sooner and save the states and taxpayers **TONS** of money! :
1) Any child of** any** age who passes the GED or similar private exam should be awarded an official high school diploma from his local government high school. Currently, in my state only those who are 19 or older are permitted to take the GED.
2) Begin credentialing exams in first grade. If a child passes a respectable exam in a specific subject he should be immediately promoted to the next level in that subject.
Courses, taught by the world’s best and most experienced teachers, could be posted on the Internet. They could start with first grade and even include courses on graduate school level. Even some ( many) professional school courses could lend themselves to this format. The cost to the student for the course and testing could be **FREE** if the producers accepted advertising. And...The producers could indeed become as rich as Mark Zuckerman.
Advantages for the student, parents, taxpayer, and state governments:
1) An official high school diploma would make loans and scholarships to post-secundary education and entrance into the military more straightforward.
2) The sooner a child leaves government K-12 school and fewer kids in school, the more the taxpayer saves in having to educated these kids!
3) The child can start on his adult career sooner. This could mean earning **hundreds of thousands** ( maybe even a million or more) dollars over a lifetime!
4) The more years our citizens work the higher is our GDP and the more wealth, and health, ( and fun) is produced for the world to enjoy.
5) Young adults tend to adopt unhealthy living habits when they delay their entrance into adulthood into their late twenties and thirties. These habits have consequences for their health ( more STDs, “hanging out,” sleeping around, greater and mental health issues, etc.), and are detrimental spiritually and morally. Getting settled earlier into marriage, family, home ownership, work, and community would benefit the young person greatly and our nation as a whole.
6) Ambitious and organized parents would begin to take responsibility for educating their own children. Ambitious students would as well. These would help undermine the dependence that the middle class has on the government schools and lessen support for government K-12 schools in the voting booth.
7) Credentialing would help encourage a vigorous cottage industry in private tutoring. This would lessen dependance on the government K-12 schools and this would reduce support for government schooling in the voting booth.
As for the government elementary schools, the advice of Saul Alinsky could be used against the Marxists! If the government must provide an appropriate education for **all**children, regardless of how profoundly retarded they might be, then it would be **inappropriate** to keep a child in a lower level when his credentialing exam proved he was ready for the next level. A few law suits against the government schools could open up the opportunity for ambitious and bright children to move through the K-12 system far more quickly.
Also...Ambitious parents and children might seek private tutoring. This would encourage the development of a thriving cottage industry in privately taught courses or tutoring, encourage self-sufficiency and confidence that parents need to educate their own children, and wean the middle classes away from their unhealthy dependance on government schools. ( Government schools are really nothing more than a welfare program for the middle classes.)