EDITORIAL: Preparing Students for Jobs: Governor's Visit Focuses Attention on Vocational Education.
Posted on: Saturday, 25 March 2006, 12:00 CST
By The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Mar. 25--Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave vocational education a well-deserved boost during his stop in Fresno Tuesday. The governor toured Duncan Polytechnical High School, a Fresno Unified School District magnet school that focuses on health, agricultural, industrial technology and business careers. He used the school as a backdrop to push for more money for vocational education training, which he believes has been neglected in recent years.
Schwarzenegger has included $50 million for vocational education in his proposed state budget and wants additional money for it in a state education bond.
We welcome this change in direction.
Vocational education -- underfunded and underappreciated -- has been overlooked in recent years. Tight budgets and increasing pressure on educators to improve standardized test scores have brought about a growing concentration on core subject classes, further minimizing the prevalence and importance of vocational classes.
The notion that everyone should be on the college track has also gutted vocational education.
This trend continues despite numbers telling us that only 20% of high school graduates will complete four-year college degrees, fewer than 22% of jobs over the next decade will require a college education, and in California only eight of the 50 fastest-growing jobs call for a university education, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
We must focus on helping all students, not just those who are college bound, gain the marketable skills required for well-paying jobs that contribute to the economy and the well-being of the populace.
Highly skilled people will always be needed to work as plumbers, to fix our air conditioners and heaters, to be electricians and carpenters, to do drywall and plastering, to repair cars and to do masonry.
These vocations are vital to our economy -- and vital to the financial and social well-being of workers and families. Making a decent living and supporting a family are part of the American dream. Let's make the dream attainable for everyone.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
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Source: The Fresno Bee
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