Ohio...where are you?

Ohio claims that they want to prepare their students for the 21st century.  They do it by empty mandates such as this one made by Governor Taft, outlined in his State of the State address this year:

First, require all students to take rigorous course work that will prepare them for the workforce or college – this means four years of math, including Algebra II; three years of science, including biology, chemistry and physics; four years of English; three years of social studies; and at least two years of a foreign language. To give families and schools time to prepare, the core curriculum should apply to students in the graduating class of 2011.

That's all very nice Mr. Taft but do you know that we have a hard time keeping teachers as it is, especially in math and science.  You are creating more need for teachers in districts that you are still unfairly funding.  You and former Governor Voinovich are to blame for this and should be jailed until there is an equitable means to fund Ohio schools.

After that, you could do what Indiana is doing.  Instead of rendering unto Microsoft, you could take the Linux route in placing computers in clasrooms.  For what high schoolers learn on computers, whether it be word processing, use of a spreadsheet or a web browser to web design and development, the rudimentary principles (and sometimes the apps are the same -- e.g., Firefox) are similar enough to translate.  In some applications, such as programming, Linux is superior because of the number or programming language options available at little to no cost.

  If Indiana can do it, we can.