Trouble is, if legislators do put out any extra money, it will come too late to make a difference in your class. Your last chance at the test is in February during the legislative session.

• People don't really know what the new diplomas will mean in the real world.

An alternative diploma probably won't hurt your college chances, though. Utah's higher education commissioner has said good grades and a solid college entrance test score are what matters.

It probably won't haunt you if you want to join the Army or Utah National Guard either, Guard spokesman Maj. Hank McIntire says. That's even though the Armed Forces categorize recruits — affecting access to financial aid in college and whether they can even enlist — based on high school graduation status. Washington, D.C., has issued no directives on the matter.

"We're not concerned at all with the changes in diplomas," McIntire said. "(Students) shouldn't be either."

But there's a big question mark in the job market.

A group of employers a couple of years ago complained high school graduates can't do basic writing or math. They told lawmakers a high school diploma ought to mean a person has learned something significant, not just sat in a classroom 12 years.

The UBSCT is supposed to ensure that.

"I think employers clearly will take note" of different diplomas, said Tom Bingham, president of the Utah Manufacturers Association, which includes about 800 companies.

Businesses may ask applicants who don't have a basic diploma more questions, he says. "Because if they're looking for someone who needs some math skills, and it's math they couldn't pass, that may be a determining factor in their employment."

Still, Bingham says not all businesses even know the different diplomas are coming. He says he hopes to educate them.

The UBSCT also isn't exactly what Bingham and the employers group was after. They wanted to make it so even first-graders had to prove they knew their stuff before moving on to the next grade. The proof could be in performing certain tasks, presentations or portfolios.

That's where the UBSCT is flawed, Bingham says. It doesn't allow for any other way to "demonstrate competency," as school bosses call it. That puts it out of sync with the direction Utah public schools have been trying to head in the past few years.

"It's certainly not quite where some of us on the (Employers Education Coalition) wanted to go in measuring competency, but it's certainly a step in the right direction," Bingham said. "In my judgment, it simply waits too long to find out . . . and (uses) one test, and some people don't test well."