HARRISBURG -- Should all 501 Pennsylvania school districts operate with the same core curriculum that spells out exactly how many courses in science, math, English and foreign languages are required?

Gov. Ed Rendell wants to explore the idea.

At a news conference yesterday, Rendell said he realizes how much each school board values its independence and local autonomy in setting a curriculum.

But he named a new 18-member panel called the Commission on College and Career Success with a goal of "focusing on helping high school students develop skills that will prepare them for success after graduation."

Rendell said the new panel, which is to report its findings by December 2006, "will look at a core curriculum for all high school students."

One idea, he said, might be to require all high schools to have students take three years of physical sciences, including a year of physics.

Rendell said the commission members will get input from local school board members and superintendents "and see how they react to a mandated core curriculum."

The commission will be co-chaired by Judith Hample, chancellor of the State System of Higher Education, and Daniel Fogarty, a member of the Western Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board.

Rendell said he was concerned about statistics showing that out of every 100 ninth-grade students in Pennsylvania, 77 are projected to graduate from high school on time, 47 to enroll in college and 28 to earn a college degree.

He wants to increase those percentages, but said he thinks Pennsylvania has "far too many school districts." That, in turn, "creates enormous problems to achieving these goals" of higher college enrollment and graduation rates.

Rendell said he wants the new commission to look at studies "from grade nine to grade 14," the latter meaning the first two years of college, or two years of community college or technical school.

He said the competition that Pennsylvania high school students will face is growing ever tougher.

"We used to compete against Ohio and New Jersey and Maryland, but now our students compete against those in China and India and other countries," he said.

He said he is targeting high school freshmen -- ninth-graders -- "to increase the graduation rate in order to prepare them for success at the college or university level or in a highly competitive work force."