A revived way to educate students - CTECH vocation center opens in Hobbs, NM

CTECH's grand opening ceremony drew hundreds to the brand-spanking new facility on Thursday. The crowd had a chance to tour the building and listen to Mike Rowe's take on why the rest of the country can learn from the example of community partnership demonstrated by Hobbs.

A $46.5 million dollar project to teach skilled labor to students opens at Hobbs High School. Watch the short video to see how Mike Rowe describes the successful story.

CTECH VISION
"I want to see our vocational students recognized in the same manner as our advanced placement students."...Mr. TJ Parks, Retired Hobbs Municipal Schools Superintendent
Empower students for high-skilled, high wage, and high demand careers, while developing the professional skills, technical knowledge, academic foundation and real-world experiences to assure their success upon graduation.

CTECH Home Page

While the "progressives" in Santa Fe and Albuquerque push a unicorns and rainbows future to our children, in Hobbs they will be taught what the real world has to offer. A video presentation well worth watching.

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Trades classes were once part of most public high schools. Then George W. Bush implemented his disastrous “No Child Left Behind” program. NCLB did not test for the trades. And it punished any school with low NCLB scores.

So most districts eliminated their trades programs, and focused on what NCLB tested for - higher math and English skills. End result? Trades programs were eliminated, and trades students were shoved into classes they neither wanted nor needed.

George W. Bush - the worst president ever. He harmed this country in ways that will be felt for generations.

Hyperbole much! Hardly the worst president ever!

I agree NCLB was terrible legislation. If you actually take a minute and remember, everybody was for it! Soccer moms, low info voters, the moderate mushy middle were all clamoring for it. The media kept a constant drumbeat going, the Beltway professional GOP PR boys\girls, senior GOP senators, GOP Congresscritters were all saying he had to do it to keep, get or expand GOP majorities. The bottom line he was politically bullied into it, also distracted by the internal and international politics of the WOT, so he caved. All one had to do to get anything legislative passed then was preface it “... It’s for the children ..” and no matter how stupid or harmful it was likely to pass. People thank God are much more skeptical of that argument now!

Also, the end of trade skills instruction at the HS level that started ending much earlier - the Nixon\Ford administrations. I remember when it was pulled out of my high school back when I was there in the 1970s and centralized in one place. Kids had to ride a bus roughly for an hour or more to get to this centralized location. World class stupid but the educrats assured “the people” it was the solution to educating all, particularly the non-college track. I remember liberal educrat morons gushing “It will be just like the way Europe does it!”. God! I hate those people! Much of the early push for that came from Jimmy Carter’s excretable Department of Education.

Don’t forget the rapid conversion of the education associations from professional societies to militant unions, that started in the late 1960s picked up speed in the 1970s hit light speed in the 1980s. That contributed greatly to the mess and still does.

George W. Bush did a lot of things wrong, most of which he had help doing so. However, the NCLB fiasco was due to a rolling ball of ‘education fantasy solutions’ crap starting in the 1960s, it gathered 30+ years of irresistible political momentum then dumped itself into the punch bowl of “Bush II’s” presidency where it had to be dealt with politically, which is what a politician does. It continues to fester today!

> Hyperbole much! Hardly the worst president ever! <

George W. Bush is the worst president ever. I am ashamed to say that I once supported him. But NCLB alone does not make Bush so bad - I should have been clearer on that point.

Right after 9/11 Bush II had a unique opportunity to destroy radical Islam, just as FDR destroyed fascism. But, no. Bush instead told us that “Islam is peace.” But wait. It gets worse. Bush then tried nation-building in Afghanistan. And even before that was finished he launched a bloody invasion of Iraq.

Islam is on the march. They might yet swallow western civilization. This is due in no small measure to George W. Bush.

There was no way Bush, or anyone was going to destroy radical Islam. It would take genocidal levels of warfare to do so. The US is not going to do that. Islam was changing slowly becoming humane all you have to do is look a photos of 1960s-1970s college students in the Middle East from Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Tehran even Kabul and know that was happening. Carter allowed radical Islam to metastasize by giving the Shia flavor a victory in Iran. The Sunni always in competition with the Shia and vice versa weren't going to be left behind in terror. There was a small possibility it could have been contained and a deal struck (at least the Afghani version!) if we had stayed somewhat engaged with the Mujahideen after they drove out the Soviets with our assistance. We didn't so this Sunni version got to claim its success was solely its own. (Note I also blame us and the UN's interventions restraining Israel in the Arab-Israeli wars where we never allowed the wars to go to their logical conclusion.)

As far as Bush saying “Islam is a religion of peace” goes. It was a tactic; you think the world doesn't pay any attention to what's said by the US President or the US media. Bush needed the cooperation of Islamic countries to fight WOT. You don't get cooperation by insulting people. Of course, if you decide to somehow kill them all like Ann Coulter suggested you don't need their cooperation. That gets back to the genocide choice even the USSR chose not to do that. Stalin would have, but the last of the Soviet premiers didn't have the stones to do it.

Originally the Bush II administration had no intention of nation building, this I personally know. Somehow it all got changed. They convinced themselves the Iraqis were like the defeated Germans, the Afghanis were like the defeated Japanese, again I personally know of this attitude. I remember attending a meeting of US corporations, contractors, consultants and other taxpayer dollar suckerfish where their roles in the “rebuilding” was discussed. Looking back on that meeting I am convinced that's where the “nation building” notion morphed from. The juicy rationalization was “European & Asian contractors will get there make money rebuilding why can't US companies? Its the moral thing to do & it will be just like the Marshall Plan. We'll save them from radical Islam like the Marshall Plan saved Europe from communism!”.
It's always money!

As far as Islam swallowing the West, if it happens it will be the case of where a sick syphilitic rodent swallows a lion.
It will only happen if we allow it by being weak mentally & psychologically.

Its late I'm getting tired of discussing. Good night!

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