The current MCPS agenda is designed to steer students towards college life. This curriculum’s emphasis on college-readiness is believed to help create efficient and productive students who will be well-prepared for a higher education. However, not all students are fit for a life on a college campus, and MCPS’s curriculum may not be preparing them for the real world. Should MCPS amend its curriculum or continue to operate as if all of its students are college-bound? The Warrior debates the issue.

Pro By Ryan Deal ’16

Among the most important decisions teenagers will make in their life is where to go to college. However, college is just not right for some students. Whether this is due to a lack of money or a lack of interest, there is a large chunk of students in MCPS that will not attend a college in the fall after their graduation. According to MCPS’s own collected data, more than one in four of its high school graduates will not attend a college of any kind. Only about half of MCPS students will earn a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university.

With this in mind, MCPS should re-evaluate its agenda which operates as if all students will go to college. Although the current agenda has the best intentions in mind, its bar is too high to reach.

Under the current college-focusing curriculum of MCPS, students with little income are in a bind. For the state of Maryland, the average in-state and out-of-state tuition is $24,414 and $44,507, respectively. Not every family can afford such steep costs year-in and year-out. Even though there are financial aid programs available, the burden is just not worth it for students who have no desire to attend a university.

Even for students who can afford college but do not want to go, MCPS is leading them into a brick wall of sorts. Such students are cast out into the workforce with little-to-no skills on how to adjust to such a life. Rather than continually forcing algebraic formulas or periodic tables down the throats of workforce-bound students, MCPS should adjust the curriculum to include more classes or clubs designed specifically for certain jobs or positions. Programs such as the Edison Program touch upon this idea, and its popularity and success in creating the Future Scientists and Engineers of America should indicate the desire for more such occupationally-based clubs or courses. With more workforce-based programs available such as the Edison program, many students will be given more opportunities to explore life without college. The inclusion of this, along with a more specialized curriculum that does not pressure all students into a college-life, will allow MCPS to lead the charge for a stronger, happier and more efficient workforce.

MCPS should take a step back and focus less on the futures of the college-bound students. A school system’s main goal should be to put enrollees in a position to succeed. The best way to do so is by stopping the belief that all students must attend college to be successful and by promoting more occupationally-based programs for the thousands of MCPS graduates who will never receive a college degree.

Con By Annie Feinroth ‘15

You were in elementary school for six years, preparing for middle school. You go to middle school and all the teachers talk about is the rigor of high school. And now you’ve made it to high school, and now they are preparing you for . . . wait, what are they preparing you for? Oh yeah! Life. But will every student’s post-high school life look the same?

For the majority of students in Montgomery County, college is the next step. MCPS has a graduation rate of 90 percent, one of the highest in the nation. Eighty percent of MCPS high school graduates enroll in college within 16 months of graduation. MCPS is correct in preparing all of its students for college or university, and it shouldn’t change the way it operates to accommodate the minority of its students. Planning for college early can help ensure that students are ready come graduation day.

As a freshman, it’s hard to know what you’re going to do after high school. You don’t know if you are going to Montgomery College or attending Cornell. MCPS shouldn’t set low expectations and standards for students, when students haven’t reached their full potential. Yes, not all students will head off to college or graduate, but that doesn’t mean that MCPS has the power to decide who will and who won’t.

If MCPS decided to operate as if not every student is going to college, it would need to change the curriculum to expand programs for students who aren’t college bound. This would be extremely expensive. Creating more space for these classes and the equipment needed would be more money on top of that. The stoves and tables for the food industry. The computers and the necessary programs for the graphic design group and then the equipment and cars for the car industry. MCPS does not need to take on that investment. Also, if MCPS added these classes for the students who aren’t going to college many questions arise including, will they make taking these alternative classes a graduation requirement? For every student to take? That would make graduation harder for students that do plan on college. Plus, it would be unrealistic to expect that the school system could find qualified teachers for the specialized fields.

Whether students decide to go to college or not, college preparation doesn’t hurt anyone. The only people it affects are the students in high school. Even if students don’t head to college right after high school, they might go back later in life, and still use what they learned at MCPS schools, and come to the realization that it was very beneficial.