Texas has done this for years.
There are drawbacks, however, primarily that of maturity.
Many 16-17 year-olds just aren’t ready to leave home and to make career decisions. I’ve seen several early HS grads who enroll in college prior to 18 and still not graduate until after classmates who stayed in HS for four years.
Better to slow them down, let thim use any extra time to work part-time minimum wage jobs, volunteer in the community, get a feel for the real world.
After all, hurrying kids into the workforce won’t help much when there aren’t jobs for them.
Just because they can do the work, doesn’t mean they ready maturity-wise. Junior will have nearly two years of college credit under his belt by the time he officially starts college. Sadly, not even half can be used toward his major. But he has them so all’s good I suppose.
Why do they need to leave home? It is completely possible ( for all but the most rurally outback students) to live at home and attend a local college or community college.
And....Why make career decisions at this young age? The solution is to major in a basic degree with emphasis in the liberal arts and sciences for science majors. They can always get a second degree when they are older or a masters degree in the area of their interest.
All of my children started college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. The two younger earned B.S. degrees in math. The older of these two went on for a masters in math ( emphasis statistics). The younger is now taking the courses she needs for nursing school. The background that she brings to her nursing courses ( having a B.S. in math already) is excellent.
All three children took basic college generals and by age 15 had finished these and Calculus III.
The oldest decided on a much different course of action. He concentrate full time on his sport and studied accounting at a local college in the evening. He travel world wide representing the U.S. and every year competed on a national level. As an older teen he took off a few years and worked for our church in Eastern Europe. He studied Russian and is completely fluent in that language. In his early twenties he returned to competition full-time and again studied accounting in the evening. He will finish his masters next spring at an age typical for young adults who have taken the usual government school path of high school, college, and graduate school.
As for hurrying kids into the workforce, what better place to be than school when there are no jobs ( either high paying or minimum wage)?
Fundamentally, it is the parents and children who together who should be making these decisions. Government bureaucrats simply can not know the child as well the parents and the child himself. High school, college, apprenticeships, minimum wage jobs, or trade schools...it is the **families** should be making these decisions!