Running Start, a program that allows high school students to take college courses that coincide with high school diplomas, ran state community colleges $35 million into the red last year.

According to The Seattle Times, about 10 percent of high school juniors and seniors in Washington state are skipping their proms and jumping into the chaos of a semi-college life.

I don’t think Seattle’s coffee addiction is making our students smarter. High schools have lowered the bar too far, and everybody knows it.

At age 10, American students score well above the international average, but by age 15, when American students are tested against those in 40 other countries, they drop to 25th place, according to an ABC report.

Youth literally get dumber the longer they stay in American schools.

With high school teachers so sensitive to self-esteem issues that they make it impossible to fail, it’s only natural that motivated young people want to get out.

Running Start is the fire escape out of the collapsing American education system. But as a result, the 17,000 Washington Running Start students, many who aren’t quite ready for higher education, are taking a toll on college courses.

Many high school students just don’t have the maturity to handle a real workload, and as a result the dumbing-down continues into college.

Being a transfer student from a community college, I witnessed countless high school students regularly skip classes, not do the homework and then complain until the teacher slowed down the course. Inevitably half the material was re-taught.

Some students listened to their iPods in class, chatted away in the back or fell asleep. Somehow they did’t seem to understand that teachers aren’t babysitters. Most teachers would prefer that disinterested students not show up at all.

Although some high school students authentically surprised me, most weren’t responsible enough to manage their educations, and teachers just made things worse by playing into that immaturity.

It’s also too easy to get into the program. If students don’t understand papers should be written in certain formats (i.e. MLA), what a thesis is and how to write in complete sentences, they shouldn’t be taking English 201.

Come to think of it, they shouldn’t be allowed to graduate high school, much less enter the 11th grade.

There need to be higher admission standards.

Running Start students also create a financial burden.

Community colleges spend about $7,600 on each high school student that completes the program, but high schools only reimburse $4,500. Initially, colleges were just absorbing the cost, but now it’s too much to handle, The Seattle Times reported.

So who’s going to foot the bill? Apparently, taxpayers are.

The state’s Board for Community and Technical Colleges asked for an additional $7 million last Friday and hopes to push that price tag up to about $35 million in the next few years.

It’s rather ironic that the legislature recognizes the need to provide something more substantial for students, who are sick of putting up with shabby high school educations.

Many families can afford the extra $500 a quarter, and for those families who can’t afford it, there should be financial aid. But it seems ridiculous that the less-educated students pay nothing, while the educated ones pay more than $1,000 a quarter.

Taxpayers shouldn’t have to absorb the cost for students to attend community colleges, especially when half the reason for their attendance is the failing of an educational system already in place.

There are a few solutions offered, which most people hate on principle, but they make sense.

First, the federal government needs to take its hands off of the education system. Leave it up to the state to test students and maintain quality control.

I have heard countless teachers complain about having to drop their curriculum and begin pushing students to prepare for No Child Left Behind exams. The bureaucracy is hurting students.

Second, school vouchers need to be offered to parents who’d like to send their students to private schools. If high schools can put out $4,500 (that’s $2,250 a year) to community colleges, they should able to do it for private schools.

Several private high schools charge only about $6,000 a year. An extra couple of grand would definitely ice the cake.

The competition would put pressure on the school superintendents to maintain numbers, which puts pressure on high school teachers to keep students interested.

Finally, make classes harder so students don’t feel the need to leave. Teenagers are a lot smarter than people realize; they just aren’t all that responsible.

[Reach columnist Celeste Flint at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]