• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

San Joaquin County Hopes to Expand Regional Occupational Program

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, 00:01 CDT

By Neil Gonzales, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Oct. 3--STOCKTON -- Myisha Wilbon feels confident that the skills she's learning at the Weber Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology will provide her with a good career.

"We can get jobs right out of high school," the 14-year-old sophomore said as she worked on a computer-based movie program at the school, which is a partnership between San Joaquin County's Regional Occupational Program and Stockton Unified School District. "They also give us classes that we need to be able to get into a four-year college if you want to."

Wilbon said there should be more schools like hers -- particularly those targeting minorities, who often don't have easy access to classes geared toward high-paying technical careers.

To meet that demand, San Joaquin County education officials hope to establish a second school aimed at underprivileged, low-income or troubled youth.

But the proposal has rankled education officials elsewhere in the state, who say a second occupational program in San Joaquin would hog scarce state funds that could otherwise establish schools in more remote counties.

County officials say their plan would be a two-year trial serving about 90 students a year.

A showdown could occur in November, when the state Board of Education is expected to decide whether to approve San Joaquin's request.

If the board approves the proposal, it would be "considered a precedent-making decision," said Paul Watters, president of the California Association of Regional Occupational Centers and Programs. "I give San Joaquin County a lot of credit for coming up with the strategy, but it will hurt everyone else."

The occupational program Myisha Wilbon attends offers classes to high-schoolers and adults in such fields as cosmetology, health and agriculture. The proposed program would be a charter school offering career-tracked technical education primarily to poor, low-achieving students of high-school age -- including youth offenders, according to county and state documents.

The project would cost about $50,000 a year, mostly for a teacher's salary. It would also include money for books and supplies, according to Albert L. Tweltridge of the state Education Department's occupational program office, which has recommended that the state board approve San Joaquin County's proposal.

To pay for it, San Joaquin County would tap a pot of money called the Necessary Small Regional Occupational Program fund. Watters and other critics say this is one of their key concerns.

Watters argues that the Necessary Small funding is designed to go to rural counties otherwise unable to develop a vocational education program.

What's more, the Necessary Small funds are doled out before any other occupational program receives money. Right now, there's just a handful of these small ROPs such as those in Glenn, Inyo and Lassen counties. In all, 74 programs exist statewide.

If San Joaquin County's proposal succeeds, Watters said, "Here's our fear: Every other ROP in the state could create a second or third ROP. So, instead of 74 ROPs, we could have 174 trying to share all the money. But without new funding, this would lead to a crisis."

County education officials say such a financial crisis can be avoided if other counties focused on serving teens instead of adults, as they're supposed to under existing regulations. State funding is based on enrollment, so padding classes with adults keeps the money flowing, they say.

Ed King, consultant for the local education office, said he believes adult enrollment should be no higher than 15 percent. Adult vocational education should otherwise fall to community colleges and other programs geared toward the older population, he said.

Dominick Cistone, who runs Los Angeles' program, said his ROP serves about 40 percent adults. But Cistone dismissed the notion that it's using older students to inflate enrollment numbers for funding purposes. The fact of the matter, he said, is that occupational programs are not just for high school students but dropouts, graduates and adults.

-----

To see more of The Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.recordnet.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Record

More News in this Category