Oklahoma lawmakers want to see a program that gives high school students a career- or college-ready endorsement on their diplomas.
The House narrowly passed the measure Tuesday, sending it to the governor’s desk. Rep. Jason Nelson wanted Rep. Scott Martin's assurance they weren’t creating a graduation loophole.
"The way you've got the bill drafted, this would not replace the current graduation requirements and the courses in law so that we're not letting a student get a certification in lieu of the academic education, which would limit them in the future," Nelson said. "We're not doing that, right?"
"We are not doing that, no," Martin said.
The main focus is identifying students interested in jobs involving science, technology, engineering or math right out of high school.
"I don't know if you have any minor from college — I've got a minor in history — but it's kind of like that, to go along with your main degree, in this case, which would be your high school diploma," Martin said. "But the endorsements would be like a minor, specifically targeted toward STEM education."
"It's for those students that are interested in a specific career pathway. They decided they wanted to go down engineering or science, technology, math, wherever, something like that," Martin said. "This would just give them a little feather in their cap and an endorsement in those areas."
The state board of education, state career tech board and the state regents will come up with the specifics of the endorsement program if the governor signs the bill into law. Besides STEM fields, the bill calls for endorsements in business and industry, public services, and arts and humanities.
