More than your average high school education.

Did your parents attend college? I have one parent that went to college for two years and another that didn't go to college at all. For those that didn't attend college, high school should be more supportive of a alternative career path. It would be great to have a high school that offered programs getting students ready for their career. 65.9% of high school students don't attend college. That's at least 30% of people that don't attend college. That means the other 30% needs to be given help to reach their career goals. Many kids get out of high school because they have their diploma and they go to work at a fast food restaurant. Why not get training for a nurse while a person is in high school? College can be expensive, society needs to try to help the poor instead of keeping them stuck in a rut. "A third of the nation's 25- to 29-year-olds have earned at least a bachelors degree." Whats the other 67% doing? What if all the high schools offered a Criminal Justice Program, Nursing Assistant Program, and a Pharmacy Technician Program? At least then maybe we would have a couple more people out of poverty. I know it isn't the best pay but it sure is more than minimum wage at a restaurant. To make a lot of the schools around the US have Career and Technical Programs it will cost 1.1 billion dollars. In the end, when a lot of people have better jobs, it will pay itself back. A lot of people are basically forced to go to high school and it really isn't that bad. In Missouri you can't drop out until a certain age, but when you reach that age, you only have about a year or two to go until you obtain your high school diploma. It's almost dumb to not finish it up just because you don't want to. So why not have a program that gets you more prepared for the future and careers? Career programs in high school would only be beneficial to society and the economy as a whole. More jobs means more money, and more money means more spending.
I would have loved to have had a good program to get into my last year of high school to at least get some exposure to the career I might want to go into. It also would have been nice to get a certification during high school so that I could at least earn some money in my field of study while I save up money to even go to college. Also, it would have been nice because I would have had a head start on learning and getting experience in the field. Even if the school offered internships it would help students get a good idea of what the career would be like so that the student fully understands what they are getting themselves into. After an internship, the student may even decide that path isn't for them and decide to choose another one.
Either way, it would only be beneficial to schools and society if many high schools in the US offered programs proceeding toward the field they would like to go into.