Brevard County wanted to add more science and social studies to their schools’ graduation requirements. But money woes killed the plan. Stricter Brevard Public Schools graduation requirements fall to tight times
It was an ambitious objective, to require high school students to take four years of science and social studies classes to graduate from Brevard Public Schools — an extra year of each subject than is required by the state.
But amid funding shortfalls, it never came to fruition. The Brevard School Board temporarily waived its harder graduation requirement for students graduating in 2011, the first year it was to take effect, and again the following year, for this year’s graduating class.
On Tuesday, school board members voted to permanently remove the requirement from its books.
Duval and Monroe Counties still have the four-science-course graduation requirements, as far as I know. Debra Walker was, of course, responsible for making that happen in Monroe.
Seminole County also has a four science requirement that began, I believe, with last year’s incoming freshmen. It didn’t require adding further staff (yet) so I guess we were able to absorb any costs. My school added astronomy honors (which I am teaching!) as an attractive option for kids after they are done with the bio-chem-physics sequence. It only makes sense.