Although it’s only natural for parents to want their children to succeed all throughout elementary school, high school and college, the fact remains many Louisiana students are not following such a path to fruition.

In recognition of that reality, Louisiana’s top education board this week approved new admission rules for ninth-graders who might want to pursue a “career” high school curriculum.

An Associated Press report in The Daily Iberian Wednesday said the “career” high school curriculum has lower academic standards than the state’s standard course work. Students who qualify for the curriculum will focus less on academics and more on training designed to prepare them for blue-collar jobs.

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It’s clearly an option for students who feel they do not want to or simply can’t attend school throughout a university-long time frame.

Hopefully, this option, created last session by the Legislature, can improve our state’s sad mark of roughly one in three students failing to graduate high school on time. The national average is one in four, putting Louisiana at a severe disadvantage when it comes to getting our children a high school education.

This week’s effort by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education spelled out some of the curriculum’s details by passing a generalized attendance/discipline policy for the 2009-10 school year. The policy scraps an idea that would have banned students from pursuing the new diploma if they had been suspended or expelled for certain school offenses.

The more generalized approach was smart. At a time when our state lags behind so many in graduation rates, new programs must do all they can to include everyone.

Not everyone is ticketed for university life. A teenager with a trade skill will offer so much more to his or her family and Louisiana.

STEPHEN HEMELT

CITY EDITOR