All California high school students would be required to take courses required only for college-bound students starting in 2010, under legislation unveiled in Sacramento on Tuesday.

The bill, by state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, and sponsored by Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, would encourage high schools to start the more rigorous requirements earlier by giving those schools greater flexibility in how they spend some state funds.

"We need to improve our high schools from the inside out," O'Connell said. "Far too many of our 1.7 million high school students are woefully under-prepared for either college or the workplace when they leave our K-12 system."

Alarcon's legislation would also free up $450 million in categorical funding, which is money tied to specific education programs.

In return for the flexibility, schools would have to commit to several goals, such as increasing access to academically advanced standards and improving students' transition from middle school to high school and from high school to college.

While Inland Valley educators supported pushing students toward more rigorous standards, they cautioned that the timeline had to be followed.

"You have to build up to something like this. You can't just push a switch," said Barry Cadwallader, Chaffey Joint Union High School District superintendent. "If it's supposed to happen next week, it's not going to happen."

High school students would have to take the minimum requirements for admission to a University of California or California State University, the "a-g" requirements, in order to graduate. The requirement is voluntary until 2010, when all students, starting with the class of 2014, would be required to take the college-prep curriculum, Alarcon said.

Vocational and technical education program advocates have been voicing concerns during the past few months since O'Connell began pushing this initiative in February.

With the push for all students meeting college requirements, schools may be forced to eliminate elective courses such as vocational classes in order to fund strictly academic courses, said Jeff Ellingsen, Chino Valley Unified director of secondary curriculum. Some students want to work straight after high school, not go to college, he said.

But state officials said the goal isn't to replace vocational educational courses, but to rework them so they include the skills colleges require of freshman.

"We can no longer afford to hold high expectations for only our college-bound students," O'Connell said. "Students who take challenging courses do better in school, are more likely to persist in schools, and do better in vocation and technical courses."

Another piece of legislation, by State Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego, reauthorizes the state Standardized Testing and Reporting Program until 2010. It would also eliminate a national test, the CAT-6, for all grades except third and seventh.

Alpert also said she wants to explore how statewide testing could be used for admission or credit in state university systems. Other bills announced include expanding training for high school principals with ongoing coaching and professional development, and a "seal of approval" for high school textbooks that are aligned to the California academic standards.

While most Inland Valley schools purchase materials approved by a state commission, the state Board of Education only selects textbooks for K-8 instruction.

State and local educators said there would be some opposition to the legislation, especially from the textbook and testing lobby and groups concerned about the stricter academic requirements. The bills will be heard today in the Senate Education Committee in Sacramento.