Way to go, Governor Jindal!

I was just thinking this morning that something Louisiana sorely lacks is poorly educated people in the workforce. Now, after Katrina we did bring in – with President Bush’s assistance – about 100,000 illegal aliens to help repopulate the Gulf Coast, with more than 30,000 in the New Orleans area. But I think conservatives will agree that it’s a bad idea to import poorly educated people when we can create them ourselves, here at home. Governor Jindal is doing his part.

Louisiana will now have two options to achieve a high school diploma, in order to encourage children not to drop out of school, and as part of a new vocational education track. The new “diploma-lite” option will have fewer requirements for English and math. Sadly, not everyone’s on board with this:

But opponents objected to a provision that lowers the academic requirements to enter ninth grade for students who choose the career diploma. Under the new law, such students could still pass the eighth-grade LEAP test even if they fail either the English or math portions.

Currently, students must score at least “basic” in one of the subjects, and “approaching basic” in the other to get promoted.

I don’t see a problem with that. It’s not as though carpenters, electricians, auto mechanics or blue collar workers in general have much use for math. And I think we ought to be able to assess a child’s potential pretty adequately by the eighth grade and select his career track accordingly.

The important thing is that in a few years when Governor Jindal runs for President, he’ll be able to brag about Louisiana having one of the lowest dropout rates in the country.

Cross posted at Hot Air’s Green Room.