Free at Last - Jeb Bush has an Epiphany.

Jeb Bush the Philosopher King, said:

"I want to make a different comparison this year to something completely different. I wish our schools could be more like milk. You heard me, I said milk. Go down the aisle of nearly any major supermarket these days and you will find an incredible selection of milk.

You can get whole milk, low fat milk or skim milk. You can get organic milk, milk with Vitamin D or milk enzymes to improve you the way your brain functions. You can get flavored milk — chocolate, strawberry or vanilla – that doesn’t even taste like milk. Most of the time, there is a whole other refrigerator case dedicated to milk alternatives – like soy milk, almond milk and rice milk. They even make milk for people who can’t drink milk. Who would have ever thought you could improve upon milk? Yet, freedom, innovation and competition found a way."

Okay, so let me get this straight, Jedediah. You want my school to offer lots of options to our students, right? You don't feel that this is being done now? Let me larn you sumfin', Jeb.

Here are a few choices my students have:

At the Tech Center:
Business Management, Financial Accounting For Seniors, Carpentry, Culinary Arts, Electronics: Audio Engineering, Emergency & Fire Management, Engineering Technology, Graphic Technologies, Hands-On Computer Systems, Health Career Academy, Horticulture & Natural Resources, Human Services, Industrial Trades, Law Enforcement, Manufacturing, Pre-Technical Studies, Tourism & Lodging Management.

At another tech center, you can take:
Architecture Engineering Design, Auto Refinishing and Collision, Automotive Technology, Cabinet Making, Carpentry, Computer Technology: IT Systems & Solutions, Culinary Arts, Digital Arts, Electrical/Plumbing, Health Careers, Hospitality and Entrepreneurship, Human Services, Music Technology: Jazz and Contemporary, Natural Resources, Forestry & Horticulture, Power Mechanics/Welding, Public Safety Services: Law Enforcement, Video Production.

At the school:
English, Math, Science, History, Languages, Music, Art. There are some minimums but the choice is up to the student. Everything from a basic and modified all the way up to AP, college level. Electives like US military history, russian, SATprep, media studies, ethics, sociology, chess (at a neighbor school).

Virtual High School
What the title says. Computer programming, math, english, science, whatever the need, they can have it in a 21st Century Schooling sort of way. Kid gets pregnant and can't come to school in the last months? - VHS.

At the college:
Some kids take courses at the college, paid by the school district.

Alternative programs:
Not to get too specific, but these kids don't make it in the high school, so we spend $40k per year apiece to send them to programs to which they belong.

I sometimes believe that we offer TOO MANY choices. Kids get wrapped up in the belief that they know what they will do in life and so "don't see a need for this boring stuff" even though they really will need it, they just don't know much about the world or education yet.

But you don't seem to know much about the world or education either, Jeb.