A high school degree ought to be good for something. Students are entitled to four years of effective free education. If high schools can't engage them I think the government should be on the hook for the bill for the first year of college.

Why take any classes that aren't required? I get the impression that "education" is now a luxury and most kids today need to get to a degree as fast as possible so they're merely saddled with debt instead of totally crippled. In that mindset, the only purpose of high school is to either get into college or get into some vocational training as soon as possible.

Maybe only rich people are applying to Dartmouth, though.

I think that the quoted statistic is misleading. For the students that are at top-tier universities like Dartmouth, the vast majority of students are still graduating in 4 years:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...

I think that the 6 year figure is due to an extraordinarily long tail.

Seems like a high school diploma should guarantee a basic level of competency with literacy, math, and scientific knowledge. 2/3 of first year college students in the US have basic or below basic levels of proficiency with the English language.

My girlfriend teaches high school. Another teacher there teaches a class sponsored by a local community college.

The curriculum is strict, and the teacher needs a masters to qualify. And then the kids end up with real college credit.