28 to graduate

It takes twenty-eight credits to graduate from Bios Christian Academy. Four of those credits required for graduation are Bible classes. So to then compare us to the outside world, our students need twenty-four other credits to graduate. Of those 24 credits, four are for math, English – 4, Science – 3, History – 3, Spanish – 3, and 7 electives. Each credit is two semesters of a course.

The reason I bring this up now is because of the current controversy in the Gilbert and Queen Creek School Districts over increasing the credits required for graduation from twenty-two to twenty-three.

The East Valley Tribune in an editorial on Sunday, December 14 supported the idea, saying, “[Public schools’] focus must be on the educational needs to prepare students for college or, more generally, success as informed, well-rounded adults.” That is exactly the focus the public schools need, but unfortunately they do not have.

After witnessing and educating on Christ, our focus is college-prep. Early graduation from high school does not help prepare for college. Consistently students are emotionally and educationally “ready” for college at just about the middle of their third quarter of the senior year. But before that, every semester of every class is used to prepare them for college and the world they live in. Twenty-four credits are just enough to provide them for that.