Raise value of high school education

To the editor:

President Barack Obama's initiative that the government should pay for the first two years of community college is generous, but masks a systemic problem with education. The president said that community college was one of the central pathways to the middle class, a means for people to find better work. Undeniably true, but is not high school meant to be the pathway to the middle class? Should not a high school education be enough?

Alburnett, where I went to school, had an eighth grade graduation ceremony. Perhaps obsolete today, but the ceremony meant something to me at the time. My grandmother only completed eighth grade before starting work as a maid. My grandfather, however, was compelled by his father to graduate high school. His diploma taught him the tools to rise from being a farm hand to being a land owner, school board member and be a deacon in his church.

Today a high school diploma might qualify you for a job as a clerk or secretary. This is because high school, relative to today, prepares a kid for today's world about as well as elementary school prepared a kid for my grandparents' world. Raising the value of a high school education to keep up with the times means a kid's school years will be worth more to them when they are adults. Doing this within a pre-existing framework is more efficient than tacking on two more years of school.

David Sheets

Cedar Rapids