The Saddest Commentary
The saddest commentary upon our nation is that which says we can’t afford to educate 78% of our young people.
This statement comes from statistics found in Manhattan Institute’s policy research paper, “Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States” by Jay P. Greene, Ph.D. & Greg Foster, Ph.D. Page 1, Paragraph 3 states “Only 70% of all students in public high school graduate, and only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges”. This does not take into account those who dropped out of school. That amounts to 10.7% of young people ages 16 though 24 years of age according to the National Center of Educational Statistics. This also excludes institutionalized youth.
From this we can extrapolate that 78% of young people are not prepared for college. Knowing this is true, what are they prepared for in the working world? What career can they pursue?
While we are testing for no child left behind, what are we doing for the students that don’t pass these tests as far as preparing them for life? Our teachers are teaching how to pass tests rather than teaching life’s lessons for those most in need. We are totally neglecting all of our young people that are not college bound, by not offering them a career path and training toward that goal.
Over the last 20 years we have been closing down vocational education departments of our schools, saying they are too costly to maintain. What is too costly is not educating all of our young people to be able to have and to hold good paying jobs. If we were to spend the money to train all of our youth for productive careers, such as the numerous jobs that are going to other countries for lack of experienced technical people we would be money ahead. If you think for one moment the young people that can only find work in fast food joints would not want a career rather than the dead- end rut that will never support a family, you are wrong!.
There is a definite correlation between vocational education and having our young folks ready for the working world, rather then a life of uncertainty and despair. Some of these young people would be able to start businesses or invent new things instead of wasting their lives in dead-end jobs. Creating skilled workers helps build our ability to attract manufacturing and service industry to our country, and some of these young people will eventually start business of their own. A productive person with a future and hope for a better life will not become a thief, drug dealer, or other problem to society.
Our youth are looked upon as lazy and irresponsible only because we don’t teach them the values we expect of them, we don’t educate them to have careers that give them hope.
Why is India answering our phone inquires for computer and credit card issues when our young people are out of work. Is India more capable of educating their young people to not only speak English but also learn computer savvy and marketing these skills easier then we can?. Certainly it does not require a college education to answer questions about your credit card statement or software problems on your computer.
The answer is to provide young people with vocational educations that will attract industry, and build a working class structure in this country that is not based on an illegal immigration labor pool.
This demonstrates the fact that both industry and education need to work together for the survival of both our young people and industry.
As leaders in our community and nation we must demand that we get back on track with educators and industry leaders to go back to basics and educate all of our young people. Not just a selected few that will be college bound. Educating our youth could also help the social security situation by putting more of our young people to work in productive carriers, getting them off welfare rolls, keeping them out of jail. This is a win-win situation.
Thoughts by John Butler
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