There's every reason to believe that state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell is fully committed to the welfare of California's more than 6 million public school students. He's a former teacher who spent many years in the Legislature and was considered to be one of the Capitol's good guys.

O'Connell rightfully devoted the bulk of his first State of Education speech this week to the poor performance of California's high schools and many of their 1.7 million students, declaring that they "simply are not reaching the academic levels needed to succeed in the workplace, in college, or as effective citizens." O'Connell, moreover, gave overdue recognition to the simple fact that not every high school student is college-bound - even if most of them would, perhaps bowing to cultural pressures, insist that they are.

"The job of K-12 education in California must be to ensure that all of our students graduate with the ability to fulfill their potential - whether that takes them to higher education or directly to their careers," O'Connell said, "and right now, too many of our students are not adequately prepared for either." He went on to call, quite correctly, for "nothing less than a refocusing of the culture of high schools."

But from that point forward, oddly, O'Connell's call for high school reformation narrowed to a call for tougher academic standards and, in effect, putting every student on a college track. "We should require every high school student to complete ... the standard, minimum course load required for admission to our four-year universities," he said. O'Connell thus failed to make a significant break with a wholly unrealistic, even self-defeating, assumption that has already contributed to the declining relevance of California high schools.

The fact is that a tiny percentage of incoming high school freshmen will ever complete a four-year degree (fewer than 10 percent 10 years after entering high school, by one study) and that about a third of them will drop out before earning even a high school diploma. The state has already postponed the effective date of its much-heralded graduation examination because educators know that its strict application would, in effect, force many more students to leave school without diplomas.

O'Connell's call for placing every student in college prep-type academic programs just doesn't make any sense. It ignores the simple fact that the innate academic abilities of students vary widely - from slightly dull to certifiable genius - and thus would fail to tailor high school to those differing abilities so that, in O'Connell's words, students "graduate with the ability to fulfill their potential."

The narrow focus of O'Connell's high school reform plan is betrayed by the fact that he totally ignores vocational education, which has been shredded throughout the state by administrators bent on implementing the politically popular assumption that all students are college-bound. Auto shops and other vocational venues have been shut down by administrators who want the space for other classes, and the dwindling number of vocational teachers have been treated shabbily, indirectly told that they really don't belong in a contemporary high school. Those who soldier on bravely can point to incredible success stories, of kids being dissuaded from dropping out and finding personal success - but the collegiate elitists aren't interested in that reality.

One can only wonder how many of those hundreds of thousands of dropouts might have remained in school had they been given the opportunity to develop their interests in mechanics, carpentry, electricity or other hands-on pursuits? We once considered vocational education to be an appropriate and socially beneficial part of high school, but the current notion, underscored in O'Connell's mention of "trade schools," is that someone else should be doing that. The double irony of this attitude is that the real world is crying for auto mechanics, carpenters, electricians, roofers and other blue-collar workers. Students who do acquire those skills, despite the lack of official support, find themselves much in demand.

O'Connell's pitch for high school reform should be taken seriously when it begins dealing with reality - the world as it exists - and not the fantasy constructed by academic theorists.