Government: "Do It - It's Good For You!"

Here’s another bad idea drawn from the pages of the USA Today.  “New Mexico’s high school juniors would be required to apply to at least one college or show they have committed to other post-high school plans as part of a new high school graduation requirement being pushed by two state lawmakers.”  Under the proposed law applying to college or presenting a personal plan to join the military, commit to a vocational program, work in an apprenticeship or become an intern will become a requirement for high school graduation.

Lawmakers are concerned about the drop in college attendance in the state and hope to adopt this approach, which is based on a program in the city of Chicago, not exactly the best place in the world to copy educational reforms from.  Note:  In Chicago high schools fewer than three out of every four students graduate over a five-year period, far worse than the national average.

One reason it’s a bad idea is that it assumes that the state is superior to parents and students in knowing what is best.  Some young people are not cut out for college, either academically or based on personal interests.   Some are not socially or emotionally ready to go to college right out of high school and would benefit from a year or two off.

Another reason it’s a bad idea is that high school students are smarter than lawmakers in the sense that they are very astute at gaming the system.  They have been living for eighteen years under the thumb of one authority figure or another and have develops skills for finding loopholes.  The obvious loophole here is to apply to a college with the lowest application fee.  Send the application in – requirement met – and then go about your business.  (Here is a list of 426 colleges with no application fee found after a two-minute Internet search.)

 Another reason it’s a bad idea is that the last thing New Mexico high school students, especially those from some of the poorer districts, need is one more hurdle to high school graduation.  For the more rebellious, instead of encouraging college attendance, it may discourage high school graduation.

College is also a huge financial commitment, one that continues to haunt the current wave of young (and not so young) college graduates.

Finally, lawmakers are notoriously poor at influencing behavior through legislation.  They write thousand-page laws to try to cover every possible contingency, yet motivated people will find ways to circumvent tax laws, immigration laws and a host of others.  In 2011 a federal law cracked down on the credit card companies, and before it became effective the credit card companies raised some fees and minimum balances to, at least partially, offset the effect of the law.

Lawmakers with good intentions try to get people to do what they see as the right thing.  In the process they don’t consider all contingencies, they try to force everyone into the same mold, they give individuals (students and parents) permission to shirk their own responsibility and they complicate life for everyone.