Think back to high school.

Graduation came after 12th grade, at age 17 or 18. After that began four or five years at a university. After graduating from college, you’ll most likely go off to graduate school or enter the workforce.

But what if you could have graduated high school after 10th grade?

You would have had to take a set of comprehensive exams, and, upon passing them, would have had the option of finishing the last two years of high school or graduating early.

The catch: If you graduated early, your only two options would have been attending a technical school or community college.

If you attended tech school, you could get a pretty good-paying trade job.

If you attended community college, you could build on your associate’s degree by moving on to a four-year college. You’d probably need to study only two additional years to get your bachelor’s.

Sound like a good idea? New Hampshire thinks so. And it is correct.

The state has announced a new system in which 10th graders statewide will take a set of challenging exams. Those who pass will supposedly be prepared to attend any of New Hampshire’s community colleges or tech schools. The tests can be taken as many times as necessary to pass.

This certainly sounds radical, considering how rooted and widespread the “12 grades” model has become in this country. Several other countries, however, implement models similar to the one adopted by New Hampshire.

It bears mentioning that students from those other countries generally outperform U.S. students across the board.

More and more states and educators’ groups are signing onto the idea.

The impetus behind this is the fact that the U.S. is lagging behind other nations in the education of its workforce.

Reform is sorely needed, particularly since more and more jobs are sent to other countries to be done by better-educated workers.

In the past, most of the outsourced jobs were manual in nature. But lately, white-collar jobs, which require higher levels of education, have also been sent abroad.

Most of the countries that receive those workers educate their students within systems that inspired New Hampshire’s new plan.

The plan is sound because it doesn’t really change the end result of the current education system.

Students still have the freedom to pursue whatever type and level of education they’d like. The tests in the system will not force students into a particular educational track depending on scores.

No, those graduating early will not be able to immediately enter a university, but they will be free to do so after attending community college.

And having a two-year degree can only benefit those students in later higher education.

Officials also envision the tests as indicators of weakness as well as readiness to graduate. Students who demonstrate weakness will receive extra help before they’ll be allowed to graduate.

Eventually, the plan will call for standardized curricula at all levels of education.

This will minimize yearly reviewing of same material and will make sure all students are being taught to meet the same standards.

The plan also saves money.

As reported by Time magazine, more than half of high school graduates who pursue higher education attend community colleges.

The New Hampshire plan allows students to attend those same colleges two years earlier. If implemented nationwide, the plan would save $60 billion annually.

That money, which would have been spent on those students for two more years of high school, can then be spent in other sectors of education.

Critics of the plan say that allowing students to end high school earlier would result in lower-income students not attending college in favor of entering trade schools and would enter the workforce earlier.

This is true, but the current system does nothing more than the proposed plan to encourage lower-income students to attend college.

Instead, it forces students to stay in high school longer before being able to train for jobs. All funding aid programs like FAFSA will still be available for those wishing to go to universities.

Those who don’t and instead attend trade schools and community colleges anyway will have the option of starting their future education and work plans two years earlier.

This plan is getting more and more supporters, with other states looking to implement similar programs.

Nationwide educational policy groups are signing off on the plan because it makes sense.

Much of the rest of the world already does it, and their students consistently perform better academically than American students.

Foreign students are future foreign workers and will fill exported American jobs not because they are willing to work for less money or benefits, but because they are better educated and more qualified for those jobs.

Unless serious reforms like the New Hampshire plan are implemented, American students – tomorrow’s American workers – will fall further and further behind.