Since Katrina I have spent around half my time in New Orleans helping rebuild. Some of this has been my own work while the rest has been with organizations and on my one helping others rebuild.
And while my sample size is not that great, perhaps a few hundred, people I can tell you that I have had to teach a higher percentage of Americans to do simple carpentry math than I have immigrants.
The bottom line is that a basic education only needs to include the skills needed for your line of work. The immigrants I worked with knew how to cut a 45 degree angle and how to float sheet rock. Most of the Americans did not.
At the time I needed people that could do simple construction math and float sheet rock and I did nor really care if they could talk to me about William Shakespeare.
>>The bottom line is that a basic education only needs to include the skills needed for your line of work. The immigrants I worked with knew how to cut a 45 degree angle and how to float sheet rock. Most of the Americans did not.<<
One reason that in some areas there is a shortage of Americans with carpentry skills, and other construction skills, is that wages are depressed in construction. And I would agree that the US public education system has failed to educate students to compete with students around the world in math and science. In my opinion, having millions of illegals who are consuming tax money dedicated to schools and other services is not going to help.
>>At the time I needed people that could do simple construction math and float sheet rock and I did nor really care if they could talk to me about William Shakespeare.<<
Did you care whether they were here illegally?
Actually, I know Mexicans who are very capable and educated in literature and other fields, (who could hold their own debating Shakespeare vs. Cervantes) but the ones I know stayed in Mexico. In my opinion, we have enough native born people here who are not well educated, and we don’t need millions more here illegally.