GOP plan: No HS diploma? No unemployment check
This is one of the most ridiculous proposals I've ever seen. 
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/09/10075106-gop-plan-no-hs-diploma-no-unemployment-check
(snip)
Out of work and without a high school diploma? If you’re collecting unemployment insurance, you may soon be out of luck.
As Congress returns from the holiday recess, one of the most pressing items on its agenda will the two-month extension of jobless benefits enacted late last month. The compromise deal, part of a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut, tabled debate on wider reforms to the unemployment insurance program.
Those reforms include shortening the length of time jobless workers can collect benefits and a provision that would require anyone collecting them to have a high school diploma or be enrolled in an adult education program working toward a General Educational Development, or GED, certificate.
If they implement this idiotic idea they need to make sure they pay every person without a diploma every single penny they've paid into the Unemployment INSURANCE program. There are people without a diploma who have been paying into UI for 40 - 50 years. These right wingers really are morons. They really make me sick. 
= new reply since forum marked as read
Please excuse my misspeak. 
The subject matter just caused me to see red and my fingers worked faster then my brain.
I graduated however none of the generation before me did in my family and I suspect most families. It is so arrogant of these pieces of garbage to forget their heritage and once again try to piss on the poor and downtrodden.
I'll probably get flamed for this but I am one that believes there are too many college educated idiots in society today. Please don't misunderstand. I don't mean all college educated people are idiots, far from it. I mean garbage in, garbage out. If you have a mediocre high school student who attends college, usually a community college because they can't get accepted anywhere else, the end result is a mediocre college graduate who thinks they are smarter than those that did not attend college.
I see it in my industry daily. I am a specialty subcontractor who provides a service and product that, in most cases, has to follow specifications written by architects and get final approval from not only the architect, but a whole host of engineers, administrative people and others who know diddly squat about the product and service I provide. I am a commercial overhead door company.
Sounds pretty simple right? Overhead doors, they open, they close, they provide security, keep the cold out in the winter and the cool air in during the summer. Wrong, yep, I said wrong.
Due to the previously mentioned college educated idiots I now have to jump through hoops just to get a simple insulated service door approved, and once it IS approved and installed, it takes me forever (45 - 90 days) to get paid by the general contractor.
You see, some college educated idiot who writes the subcontracts decided to add a "pay when paid" clause, which in 95 out of 100 cases is a non binding clause, but if you fight it, they just move on to the next guy who isn't contract savvy and who will install this product for pennies.
The architect who, in most cases knows nothing about doors, decides to reinvent the wheel. The problem is they are making the wheel square but they don't want to hear that. These snot noses (I was hanging doors before most of them were even thought of) expect the manufacturer to completely retool their factory to satisfy their mistaken understanding of the functionality of an overhead door. What used to be a straight forward industry is now rife with unnecessary paperwork because some mediocre college graduate thinks he/she are smarter than those of us who have been doing this for 30+ years, not to mention they feel the need to justify their mere existence by generating more paperwork than NASA did to put a man on the moon in 1969.
Just to let you know, I work for all of the city agencies here in NY. The DEP, DSNY, DOS, FDNY, SCA, and Port Authority of NY & NJ to name a few. If you happen to go to one or more of the new local NY sports stadiums (not named on purpose) and you look up as you're getting your snack, soft drink, or your beer or you look around and see an overhead door, my company installed it. Due to the confidentiality agreement I signed I can tell you I am involved in the most high profile project in the world right now in NY, I just can't give you details.
I tell you this so you understand that I am not just some dumb door guy who doesn't know what I'm talking about.
I know I was somewhat condescending in my description of architects and I apologize to those architects that are truly professional and are not part of the group I've addressed here. There are some however as time goes on we are seeing less and less of them.
The bottom line of my rant is, not everyone is cut out to go to college. Somebody needs to provide those services which do not require a college education and if everyone goes to college, who is going to be left to do that? Who is going to work the assembly lines if manufacturing returns strong? Who is going to provide customer service? Who is going to collect our garbage? Who is going to drive our trucks? And the list goes on and on.
Sorry:
But it sure helps the person.
The unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma remains persistently high. Last month it was 13.2 percent.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/12/01/143016866/unemployment-falls-to-8-6-percent
Getting as PhD and a Masters in molecular Biology helps too. 
Since you said you've "tutored for inner city drop-outs" I just can't help myself. I apologize in advance.
"But if they really cannot grasp the level of material on the GED, with really trying, then there job opportunities are going to remain very limited and there is not a lot we can do about it."
Don't you really mean "their"? OK, flame away, I deserve it.
I think most actual Western europeans would think the Republicans are anti-social, right-wing lunatics 
I have to just wonder where they come up with these ideas. Once again, they take the term "double standard" to new levels.
indeed