A controversial bill passed in the Louisiana State Legislature on June 23, initiating a program which will allow high school students to earn a career diploma. The aim is to decrease the high school dropout rate in the Louisiana public education system.The option is now available for students who wish to avoid classes such as trigonometry and English literature. Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, told the Advocate that high school students “are dropping out mainly because they do not find any relevance in most of the things they are being taught.”This bill provides a way for Louisiana to improve its high school dropout rate but does nothing to confront the much larger and more important issue of a cultural propensity to denigrate the benefits of an academic education.With an agricultural background and high-paying oil field wages available, many students don’t find any use for trigonometry or literature. It’s a travesty that this sentiment is condoned by a legislative bill rather than confronted through an educational campaign that could rescue this state from its near “third-world status.”It was not until after high school, working in a blue collar job, that I realized the importance of mathematics and literature. The usefulness of such subjects should be a focus in high school. Students should not be provided an easy way out. At 15 years old, the path of least resistance is often followed. If we are serious about improving this state and raising it to its rightful place in the nation, we must take the education of our youth seriously.Even the study of Chaucer and Beowulf is important, as it allows the reader a glimpse of the past, as well as a broader perspective on life. It is only through the training of our mind to reason and the stimulation of intellectual curiosity that we will be able to rise from the swamp muck to find a horizon full of possibilities.”[T]he use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection,” as Edward Gibbons writes in “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”The cohort dropout rate (the percentage of students who dropout during a standard four-year high school career) for 2007 was 19 percent with a 65.9 percent cohort graduation rate, according to the Louisiana Department of Education. This is a dismal statistic when compared to the national Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate reported by the National Center for Education Statistics of 74.7 percent. Statistically the ninth grade experiences the highest level of dropouts. It’s during this period in life that a person experiences great emotional and hormonal changes. It’s no surprise that Chaucer, Beowulf and trigonometry hold such little sway when placed alongside the opposite sex and preconceived notions of success.This conflict is why a career diploma option for Louisiana’s youth will do more harm than good. The dropout rate will fall, enabling politicians to claim progress and prowess. However, underneath the glitter, the youth of Louisiana will be further steeped in the cultural belief that academics are a waste of time and hold little relevance to them. Success will be measured only in the size of their pickup truck or the ability to buy Budweiser instead of Natural Light. And the State of Louisiana will be permanently stalled in a state of economic limbo.  As it is right now, we are the servants of a great nation. We farm and drill for oil. However, our education is deemed of little importance.  By offering the career diploma as a valid alternative to our future children, a comfortable path is provided which will ensure complacent, uneducated human labor. Nathan Shull is a 35-year-old finance junior from Seattle. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_nshull.————Contact Nathan Shull at [email protected]