More early emphasis on career paths is needed for Mississippi public school students, Dr. Hank Bounds said in Vicksburg Thursday.

Key parts of the superintendent of education’s plan are increasing what is expected from students and seven lists of recommended courses depending on student goals after elementary school.

Bounds is on a 25-city tour organized by the state chamber of commerce, the Mississippi Economic Council, which met at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Also speaking was Tommy Dale Favre, director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Bounds said much of his plan was developed after studying the job market and how it is expected to change.

&#8220We should think of high schools as a work force development center,” Bounds said. &#8220Because regardless of what it is that a student plans to do post-high school – whether they’re going to become a physician or an attorney or an accountant or a banker or a teacher or an electrician – they should be capturing skills that will one day help them to be successful post-high school.”

The career paths, starting in the seventh grade, are broad so that students are not locked in.

&#8220We’ve built a recommended course of study for students who want to go directly into the university setting or the community college setting or leave and go directly into industry,” Bounds said. &#8220And I want to be clear that this is not a tracking system. I view it as more of an interstate model where students can enter and exit this interstate of pathways. All along the way they’re counseled.”

A goal of the new system is to cut in half within five years the state’s dropout rate of 35 percent.

&#8220The nice thing is that now we have some safety nets in place for those kids that drop out,” Bounds said of the plan that would require legislative approval.

The MEC supports the idea, said its president, Blake Wilson. &#8220In fact, it was one of the recommendations of the Blueprint Mississippi study that we came and shared with you a couple of years ago,” he said. &#8220So we can check off another box if this legislation is passed that we’ve moved yet another step forward.”

Bounds compared Mississippi’s public education system with that 15 or 20 years ago of North Carolina, which he said has made dramatic improvements.

&#8220One of the primary reasons that they’ve made those gains is because the business community stepped up and said, ‘We want better schools,’” Bounds said. &#8220’We are clear on the fact that economic development – good economic development – is dependent on having very, very good schools.”

Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said he supports Bounds’ plans and encouraged the audience to help increase public support for them as well.

Favre said the MDES had clarified its mission on her watch and cited numbers and other achievements in support of that claim.

&#8220Our mission is increasing employment,” she said.

Favre said the number of people hired through the MDES increased from 36,000 in the fiscal year ending June 2004 to 56,000 in the one ending this year. She said the next year’s goal has been set at 120,000.

The average length of time a person spends receiving transitional unemployment benefits has also been reduced from 15 to 12 weeks and is &#8220trending down,” Favre said.

An MDES online job database is in the pilot stage and has been tested during initial hiring for a large new Lowndes County steel plant, SeverCorr, Favre said.

&#8220For SeverCorr, we took 8,000 online applications,” Favre said. &#8220Now that tells me that there are people across this nation – and we even got some from abroad – who are willing to come to Mississippi for good jobs.”

The MDES hopes to make the system available to businesses statewide in about two months.

Favre also highlighted the MDES’ capabilities to offer help to smaller businesses that request it.

&#8220We can be the (human-resources) arm for many small businesses who don’t have their own HR team,” Favre said.