"They really need to do the numbers. If you up this, then something else is going to go. You only have so many hours in the day," she said.

Zan Burningham said the problem of cramming all the electives and core classes into a student's day is exacerbated by a problem unique to Utah — LDS seminary.

Many students who are members of the LDS Church use one credit hour each year to take religion classes taught outside of the school building.

But Kendell said the solution doesn't have to be black and white. A rigorous core of high school classes doesn't have to mean a death of arts education or the end of release-time seminary.

In fact, a sketch of a typical high schooler's schedule with the Board of Regent's heightened requirements still allows for at least one elective each semester, as well as more than three electives each semester by the end of the junior year.

Ma, for example, said he's been able to take French and band classes despite cramming his schedule with advanced classes and at least four years of math, English and science. Ma even had room in his schedule to take a few more science classes as electives.

"Over time it's been the triumph of choice. It's one thing to choose a kind of humanities emphasis as compared with just kind of a scatter gun of miscellaneous courses that don't have any particular coherence," Kendell said.

While the K-16 alliance is working to provide a little more cohesion to the high school curriculum, Kendell points out that's a feat requiring some creative thinking in terms of curriculum, incentives and the role of high schools in general.

Without that, Kendell said Utah will continue losing students in the gap between high school and college.

"The high school diploma does not have the kind of currency that it may have had 20 years ago. Our perspective is that virtually every young person needs some college," he said. "They need some level of college if they're going to be competitive in today's world."

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com