Just seven years ago, the Texas Legislature prescribed that all high schoolers must pass two math courses and geometry to graduate. This summer, the state reversed course, easing its【C1】______math, science, and social-studies requirements to【C2】______class time for job training. Texas legislators want to create a more【C3】______system that helps students who arent headed to four-year colleges enter the workforce. But that【C4】______carries some risks.【C5】______its true that not all students will go on to college, pulling back on college preparatory coursework has to be【C6】______carefully in a state like Texas, with its hundreds of thousands of low-income and【C7】______students. Theyre the students who would benefit from college the most. New laws in Texas, as well as in Florida, de-emphasize the math class required for【C8】______to four-year colleges. Knowledge of these subjects is considered an indicator of college readiness【C9】______the Common Core standards, which have been【C10】______by 45 states, including Florida. More than half of public-school students in both states are nonwhite and from low-income families. Its particularly【C11】______that these Hispanic and African-American students leave high school qualified to further their e-ducation—【C12】______they dont plan on doing so right away. A college【C13】______is the most important driver of social mobility. By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require some kind of postsecondary education according to surveys. 【C14】______speaking, Texass earlier college-prep course-work recommendations didnt fit reality.【C15】______the high bar, only about half of the states high school graduates immediately headed off to college of any kind. 'We wanted to give students and parents more flexibility, to not only be college-prepared—which I think were doing a pretty good job of—but perhaps to【C16】______that preparation to folks who may not be going to college,' Representative Jimmie Don Aycock, who【C17】______the Texas Houses Public Education Committee, says of the revision. The goal isnt to dumb down the curriculum, he says, but to let kids【C18】______a path that might not have been【C19】______to them before. The states educational system still rewards schools when students【C20】______college readiness. 【C1】