"I'm John Maynard Keynes, and I approved this message."
Posted on 01/27/2017 7:20:13 AM PST by MichCapCon
Detroit Public Schools has emerged from a fiscal crisis and a heated legislative debate with a new, locally elected school board. But it still faces the challenge of preparing students for the real world.
In its academic performance, the district has been at the very bottom of the nation’s report card for years. Following a contentious debate in 2016, the Legislature set aside $665 million to pay off accumulated district debt and jump-start the district under a new name. Even so, the superintendent recently confessed to The Detroit News that it will take eight to 10 years for the district to show any academic progress.
As the city attempts to rebrand itself, trade schools will offer an important option for all future Detroit graduates — whether they come from district, parochial or charter schools. But Detroit students and families can’t afford to wait that long. Many have escaped to another district or to a nearby charter school. Unfortunately, the number of high-quality seats is limited. Schools, including those in Detroit, need to redesign themselves. Not only should they prepare college-ready graduates, they also need to prepare career-ready graduates through skilled trade and technical programs.
Too often, students look for careers in industries that do not require a four-year degree, only to find themselves unprepared for these options once they leave school. Labor unions and local chambers of commerce regularly develop vocational education curriculums to fill the gap for those students.
Between 2012 and 2014, about 1,200 Detroit Public Schools students signed up for trade schools, taking a class or two as an elective. Sadly, though, trade schools now find themselves empty due to a decline in enrollment and lack of exposure.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Detroit’s unemployment rate borders on 17 to 18 percent, not including people who have stopped looking for work. Further, Detroit has seen shortages over the last two decades in the areas of plumbing, welding, pipe fitting and carpentry.
In particular, Detroit has the nation’s highest youth unemployment rate, meaning that the city’s young adults have less work experience when compared to those in other major cities. The Motor City faces a major problem if skilled jobs can’t be filled by Detroiters who attend schools, pay taxes and actually reside in the city.
As the city attempts to rebrand itself, trade schools will offer an important option for all future Detroit graduates — whether they come from district, parochial or charter schools. Students need to be directed either to a college-ready curriculum or something that fills vocational openings.
Organized labor, unable to take members for granted following the enactment of Michigan’s new right-to-work law, now has the opportunity to use vocational certification programs for preserving the next generation of members. Furthermore, an investment by laborers, welders, contractors, beauticians and other trades would complement Detroit’s workforce initiative, benefiting public education and restoring Detroit’s middle class. Students and low-income parents who might not have the money for the rising cost of college tuition have real options through trade schools.
But therein lies a problem. Detroit Public Schools and its leaders have struggled through years of corruption and declining enrollment. Oftentimes, the district’s schools have focused on equipping students for a four-year college track at the expense of real world experience: much-needed jobs in the skilled trades.
Some initiatives have stepped in to make an impact. A partnership with the program Jobs with Michigan’s Graduates has moved the needle on equipping low-income students with employable skills, including those in the skilled trades. Lansing could play a supporting role as well. Incoming House Speaker Tom Leonard has identified the skilled trades as a key area for bipartisan legislative action.
The reality is that some graduates may not seek a traditional four-year college track. Access to effective Detroit trade schools, then, matters if we want to give future Motor City workers a shot at success.
Good post. Trade schools matter everywhere. And in a perfect world every high school would have a robust trades curriculum.
But consider all those standardized state exams kids must take. None of them test for trade skills. Until that changes the trades will be ignored.
Trade school suffer from lack of enrollment because the public schools are relentlessly pushing college for everyone. It is drilled into these children from an early age that college is their goal, nothing less. It’s pure 100% brainwashing and propaganda.
There needs to be trade schools all over this country. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters not to mention true woodworkers (as opposed to rough carpenters), mechanics, people who can fix things because if we bring manufacturing back we will fix stuff instead of throwing it out.
For those who think that means fewer things will be sold, the answer is more people with paychecks mean more purchasing power. A strong middle class means a strong economy
Yep. But let's suppose Trump is able to change the narrative. Suppose he could convince the states to give the same weight to carpentry proficiency as they now give to algebra proficiency.
That would certainly help Make America Great Again.
Show me anywhere on the planet Earth anytime in history where a group of black politicians in an all black population fixed any major financial problem similar to what Detroit Schools face. Putting lipstick on a pig still begets a pig.
Detroit schools will not be better in 10 years they will be worse and we all know it. So, time to quit playing NICE.
Now, there are black leaders that could lead and fix the problem but none of them, understandably, want to take on the BRI/Media partnership (Black Race Industry).
The only solution in the near term to try and save some of these kids is to disband the Detroit School District and it’s board and send these kids to black private schools to pursue a strict conservative based curriculum including History and Civics. All the bangers go to prison, or in the military or to military schools.
“Trade school suffer from lack of enrollment because the public schools are relentlessly pushing college for everyone,”
Most tradesmen in the 20th century wanted their kids to attend college. It was seen as a way out of toil and hardship. Truth is, many can benefit from a vo-tech education. Especially today when college is so squishy.
Personally, college wasn’t for me. (Back when you actually had to study and write papers and stuff) I managed a very good career, never unemployed, even when my PhD brother was sacking wind unable to find any work for over a year. The country needs people who can fix things, not just talk about them.
Not putting college down. We need doctors and engineers, but college isn’t for everybody, and vocational school should always be considered a worthy alternative.
Have a look at this.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7OUjwS5jE
It goes to the heart of the problem
Most C&T programs offer articulation agreements with community colleges allowing students to earn advanced credits to community colleges and post-secondary technical or medical schools. Were it not for the strong support of local industry, and offering adult training as well, these schools struggle to survive. Hopefully MAGA will improve this situation.
Good topic. As a trade school product back in the 80’s I found immediate lucrative employment. Was sought after for my skills for years. In the early 2000’s i went to work teaching the trade. In 2005 the program I taught was defunded despite the fact that 100% of graduates found employment and there were still more jobs available.
My husband and I still own our own business providing this skill. We have an extremely difficult time finding qualified workers (and yes we have taken on a couple to whom we have provided the necessary training.)
There is such a bias in the US toward getting a 4 yr (or more) college degree that we are doing a disservice to our young and unemployed people. There are many people who are far more talented in trade abilities who can be more successful in a job suited to their talent. Some kids can’t afford college and need this but others who can afford college have skills more suited to trades. Whichever the case, funding trade and technical schools makes sense for America.
"I'm John Maynard Keynes, and I approved this message."
Based on the high school kids I see some basic 'trade school' classes should be taught in grades 8 thru 12.
Secondly high school graduates should be given several aptitude tests to show what areas their talents lie in. Even if you still go to college just having a trade to fall back on is a good thing....
The reason there is a shortage of skilled labor because hiring managers and HR staffs conspire to hold wages down and preventing the laws of supply and demand form working. I had a long discussion with a hiring manager who was tying to find a welder but couldn’t at $13.50 hr. I ask why not just offer $20.00/hr? He agreed he would get someone but he couldn’t because apparently there is some trade published pay scale that says there is a range of $13 to $16/hr for welders. What kind of fascism is this?
They have been confiscating our wealth for years. We are just getting it back. We are quite aware of the “secret” stealing of our jobs and wealth under the guise of “free trade”
This Boston school,over 100years old,is doing VERY well-——and the young people find work when they graduate,
http://www.bfit.edu/academics/programs
.
Cool school...
I would agree but they're only as good as the people running them.
Back in the early 90's my company hired a young quality engineer that I had met playing racquetball.
After almost a year, he quit and was hired by Focus Hope down in Detroit. Within a year he quit there and was rehired by my company.
His tale was typical of all govt. subsidized training programs. The minority trainees had no work ethic, were constantly absent from their jobs and there was no one at Focus Hope that really cared.
The only thing the organization was concerned about was the enrollment numbers since that determined the amount of fed. monies. Instead of booting the dead beats out, they kept them on the rolls to keep the funds coming in.........
I just wish you knew more about Keynes. If you did, you wouldn’t embrace his economic philosophy so easily. (And blame the government instead of the market).
So being a proponent of trade schools is somehow Keynesian? What color is the sky in your world.
Or is your problem with building quality products?
Or is Americans earning a paycheck your problem?
Or do you just like slapping labels on people?
I thought you implied that we can bring manufacturing back with tariffs. If not, I apologize. If so, the above could've come straight from Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
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