JACKSON — Gov. Haley Barbour says there's nothing wrong with encouraging some Mississippi high schoolers to aim for skill trade training instead of a university degree.

"When we tell kids they ought to go to universities who shouldn't, we set them up for failure," Barbour said during a meeting of some 200 educators this week in Jackson. "We need to get more young people in skills training to get them capacity to be successful early in life."

Not all Mississippi high school students will go to college, or even graduate. The state's dropout rate is 16 percent. Only about 17 percent of the state's population has a college degree.

Barbour said Mississippi's educational system has to rid itself of the stigma attached to vocational and technical training courses for students — an attitude that's been in place since he was student at Yazoo High School. He said teens caught smoking or engaging in other misdeeds back then were sent to shop class.

"Shop was the penal institution of Yazoo High," Barbour told the group. "I fear that in high school we stigmatize the children who are not going to go to college and take the route" of skill trade jobs.

Barbour's concerns may be unfounded since Mississippi continues to expand a new high school redesign program that creates career pathways for students. But it is part of a debate about how much emphasis should be given to technical training on the high school level.

Many education supporters say giving students an option is OK, as long as academics continue to be emphasized.

"Vocational training is for the ones that do not want to pursue careers that will require a degree, but they still need their basic education," said Rep. Clara Burnett, a Democrat from Tunica and a former elementary school teacher who attended this week's meeting.

Nancy Loome, executive director of the Parents' Campaign, a group that lobbies lawmakers on behalf of educational issues, said every student should have the opportunity to pursue a college education.

"We need to be sure the education we provide all students will enable them any time in their lives that they might choose to go to college to prepared to do so," Loome said.

Mississippi's relatively new high school redesign program lets students choose coursework based on their career interest. So far, the program is in 39 of the state's 152 school districts, said Mike Mulvihill, associate superintendent for vocational education and work force development at the state Department of Education.

Mulvihill said every student in the program gets a solid academic base. However, he said some students will take all academic courses during their high school career, while others will take a mix of academics and vocational courses. The pathway starts in the 7th-grade. Along the way, students build portfolios, take aptitude tests, and work with counselors to decide their route, he said.

Some students will aim for professional careers that would require a college degree. Others may decide to become blue collar workers, such as automechanics, which would also require technical literacy, Mulvihill said.

"If you want to be an automechanic, there are generally 40 to 50 computer chips in any vehicle," he said.

Mississippi's program hasn't drawn as much debate as a similar plan in Louisiana that allows students to skip college prep courses and instead take classes designed to get them into two-year schools.

The career diploma curriculum has lower academic standards than the state's standard coursework. The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has allowed some school districts to opt out of the new diploma track.

"In Louisiana as a whole, we have roughly a 40 percent dropout rate and that's being going on for years and it's not getting any better," said Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, a supporter of the career diploma. Fannin also said there's a shortage of workers to fill many trade jobs.

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, praised Barbour's comments, saying taking the pressure off of struggling students to go to college could help keep in them in school.

"What we tell kids who are not doing well in algebra is 'You can't make it,'" Brown said.

In Greenville, public school superintendent Harvey Franklin said he's excited about his district beginning the career path program. Franklin, who came to the district in July from Georgia, said all new ninth-graders will have a take a career technical course to graduate.

"Everybody says 'I want my child to go to college.' College can mean going into nursing as an LPN or RN. College could mean going into welding, computer technology or bricklaying," Franklin said. "We want the students exposed to a breath of knowledge."