• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Dec 4, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Gov. Bobby Jindal spelled out steps Thursday he said would help trim Louisiana’s public high school dropout rate, which is one of the worst in the nation.

Jindal said in a news release that he wants to:

• Scrap a failed, anti-dropout program in favor of those modeled after a widely praised national effort called Jobs for America’s Graduates, or JAG.
• Link state aid for dropout programs to performance and require local school districts to spell out the results annually.
• Tighten rules on which 16-year-olds pursue alternative high school diplomas.

Jindal said too many high school students who could earn a traditional diploma are quitting that track, and leaving school with nothing.

Louisiana ranks 47th in the nation in its public high school graduation rate, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

About one in three high school students fails to graduate on time, state figures show.

The governor spelled out his plan Thursday at Marksville High School, and in a prepared statement issued by his office.

The Marksville effort is one of 60 programs in 31 parishes that offers classes for about 2,100 students through the state JAG.

The Louisiana branch, dubbed JAG-LA, serves students with academic, personal, family, economic or work-related barriers to earning a high school diploma.

Students can earn a traditional diploma, General Equivalency Diploma, or GED, or a skills certificate through a program that offers training for a career or college.

The state branch won national recognition Thursday, in part because 93 percent of students who take part at 19 schools earned a high school diploma.

JAG works because it offers students academic remediation, adult mentors, work experience and other aid, Stephen Waguespack, Jindal’s deputy chief of staff, said.

In his news release statement, Jindal said he wants the state to end a key anti-dropout effort, called pre-GED/skills options that the state’s top school board approved in 2000.