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Special Report
Employment School
Or call them permanent unemployment schools — because those who attend won’t ever acquire the skills work in a modern economy requires.
If you want to know one reason why the nation’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high — and why President Barack Obama is tackling the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers on reforming public schools — just stop at the D.C. Department of Employment Services’ dreary Naylor Road One-Stop Career Center on the District’s Southeast Side.
On any given day, out-of-work residents step off buses and walk past shuttered stores into the unemployment office to attend mandatory employment counseling sessions or prepare résumés for their latest job hunt. While there are more white-collar workers — many from the surrounding suburbs in Virginia and Maryland — than in previous years, the vast majority used to work in old-school blue-collar work, office jobs such as executive assistants, and service sector positions such as hospital cooks and hotel maids. Many of them came through here before, looking for work before the recession began three years ago — and will likely be back here again because they are high school unqualified for all but the most-menial of labor.
Those are just the D.C. residents actually looking for work. There are at least 38,491 residents in D.C. — more than a tenth of the workforce — who are either chronically underemployed (or haven’t had a steady full-time job) or have gone a year or more without a job. Many of them are either high school dropouts or barely graduated from D.C.’s woeful public schools. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, their lack of education and skills would have meant nothing; they would have easily found some kind of gainful middle-class employment. But in an age in which many blue-collar jobs require an apprenticeship or tech school degree, most dropouts are shut out altogether. And no amount of federal stimulus package will do more than keep them on the dole.
For all the sparring between Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans this past month about extending federal unemployment subsidies beyond the current allotment of 99 weeks (that’s a year and eleven months, if you’re counting), little has been said about the long-term jobless — who will likely be a drain on taxpayers for decades to come — and one of the most-persistent underlying causes of this problem: The nation’s woeful public school systems. With some 1.3 million teens dropping out of high school every year (and millions more graduating with inadequate reading and math skills), even more will either land in prison, on welfare, or engaged in some less-than-legal pursuits. This will further fuel the growth of big government that is draining the nation’s long-term economic prospects.
Almost none of this has been solved with the $600 billion in unemployment subsidies and federal stimulus dollars — including subsidies for job-training programs that cannot solve the problems of illiteracy and poor math skills plaguing the permanently underemployed — nor will it be addressed through future entitlements. The best solution in the long run is the one part of President Barack Obama’s agenda that has wide bipartisan support: The array of charter school expansion and school reform efforts — including the $4.3 billion Race to the Top initiative — now fiercely-opposed by the NEA, the AFT, and their allies among traditional public education and old-school civil rights groups. It will take an array of school choice measures, new curricula standards, an end of the system of seniority- and degree-based benefits and pensions, and a more-entrepreneurial culture within education to stir the future growth needed to overcome a $300 billion anchor on the nation’s economy.
FOURTEEN PERCENT OF HIGH SCHOOL dropouts age 25 and over are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, double the jobless rate for college graduates and four points higher than high school graduates. But that rate obscures the true level of unemployment. The employment participation rate for dropouts is a mere 45 percent versus 62 percent for high school grads and 70 percent for college grads; most dropouts aren’t even working in the first place.
The problem is even worse for the newest generation of dropouts, who, unlike earlier generations, are coming into the workforce in an age in which old-school manufacturing jobs such as those in the auto industry are no longer plentiful. Fifty-five percent of high school dropouts age 16-to-24 are unemployed, according to the BLS’ 2009 survey (the most-recent data available); this is double the unemployment rate for collegians and high school grads not attending college. Even worse, 52 percent of all dropouts aren’t even working or seeking employment of any kind; since they aren’t likely to be sitting in classrooms studying for a degree (and may not even be seeking a General Educational Development certificate), most are unlikely to be involved in any productive activity.
What kind of jobs can any of these dropouts get? Well, not many. They can’t get any of the positions listed by Forbes last month as the top-paying blue-collar careers. This includes elevator installers-repairmen (average annual income of $67,950), who must spend four years gaining training for a job that combines electrical, structural and mechanical engineering skills; and electrical and electronics installers — who work in power plants — who earn an average income of $67,700 after earning an associate’s degree and years of apprenticing with veterans. Save for commercial drivers (who must also attend technical school in order to drive big rigs), most of the jobs need the very kind of strong math and science skills required for high-tech white-collar gigs.
What else can’t a dropout do? Well, there’s welding in auto factories; gaining entry into an apprenticeship program requires strong knowledge of trigonometry (for bending metal into the right angles). Same for machine tool and die makers — who craft the tools needed for every area of manufacturing — who must also understand how to use computer-aided design software in their work. Since most dropouts struggled with basic reading and math while in school, it isn’t as if they would get a handle on anything more complicated. The prospects are even dimmer outside of blue collar work.
Sixty-three percent of all jobs require some form of higher education (a wider array of learning than one traditionally thinks, since it includes colleges, technical schools, and even apprenticeship programs). This includes working in the auto industry, where 60 credit hours at a community college is the minimum requirement for gaining employment. Some will argue that the degree requirements are certainly just ways to screen out unqualified applicants (and note that they are waived for high school grads with years of experience). And that is the point. Save for the few who land in entertainment or bootstrap their way to entrepreneurial success, most dropouts are essentially out of luck.
For decades, federal and state officials have funded an array of job retraining programs to help get dropouts into gainful employment. In 1998, those programs were assembled under one roof through the Workforce Investment Act. Although this has made it easier for unemployed workers to seek out programs, it is unclear that this has helped make dropouts more employable.
The GED — or “Good Enough Diploma,” as comedian Chris Rock once called it — was only marginally useful for dropouts of previous eras, as they earned less than either high school grads or collegians over time; it is even less-useful now. In June, a team led by Nobel Laureate James Heckman concluded that it has “minimal value of the certificate in terms of labor market outcomes.” The most-recent effort at workforce retraining involves community colleges, the single-biggest destination for all college-bound students. But community colleges graduate just a fifth of freshmen in three years — and most high school dropouts wouldn’t even qualify to attend.
THE LONG-TERM PROBLEMS FOR DROPOUTS points out the single-biggest problem for the American economy — and the single-biggest threat to the concept of small government most conservatives hold dear: A public education system that is hardly doing the job. Thirty-three percent of American third-graders — and a quarter of all eighth-grade students — read Below Basic proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Based on the high numbers of freshmen forced to take remedial math and English, it is clear that K-12 isn’t doing much better with high school graduates either.
The fact that America’s public schools were never really intended for actually providing an education, but for inculcating civic values (and to prevent the expansion of Catholic schools), is certainly part of the problem. But the other problems — the low quality of instruction among America’s teaching corps; the lack of high-quality school options for all but the wealthiest parents; and English and math curricula that would hardly match up to (often low) 19th-century standards — can and should be fixed before more dropouts add stress to taxpayer’s pockets.
Oddly enough, education reform is the one area where Obama may be on track. The $4.3 billion Race to the Top program has managed to spur states such as California and New York to eliminate (or modify) caps on charter schools — the most-successful form of school choice — and force efforts to bring private-sector performance management to evaluating the work of teachers (just 2.1 percent of them are ever dismissed currently). Although a clever form of unfunded mandate, it is at least one that can force education in the right direction. In D.C., for example, schools boss Michelle Rhee took a step in the right direction by sacking 241 teachers deemed unable to improve student achievement.
Some federal school reform money would be a lot better in the long run than another $750 million a week in federal spending that will only triple even if the Republicans take control of Congress next year.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
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Appleby| 7.28.10 @ 7:17AM
When I was in school (at least before Mama put us girls in an all-girls Catholic program for which she went back to work in a factory to pay), the people who were bullied the most were the intelligent kids interested in an education, and from what Iunderstand, this has not changed. Ditto at university; the *kids* who are most looked up to are those who can get drunk the fastest and the Hot Girls who date them, and the ones who are jeered at, mocked and bullied are the intelligent kids who study. (I have recently heard a law student who is interning at our offices holding forth about the Geeks and Nerds in law school who are actually there to study, thus ruining things for the rest of them.)
Until America gets over the idea that every kid can make millions bouncing a ball or step right out of university into a job as an international Network Anchor in a corner office -- or a vice presidency in a top Wall Street firm -- with a degree in Gender Identity in Rock and Roll or a rap sheet as long as his legs -- this will continue.
In this respect we are fortunate that a large proportion of the kids not being aborted belong to families that do not think this way.
P.S. That myth about only The Wealthiest Parents can afford a good school for their kids is another thing that is holding back striver kids. Catholic schools will work with you. Just ask them. And if you are one of the Protected Minorities, almost any school will do the same.
Eric Cartman| 7.28.10 @ 10:10AM
Dropouts used to go into construction jobs that paid fairly well - drywall, cement, masonry, carpentry. But since politicians and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce types allowed the giant influx of illegal Handy Mandies to flood our cities, those jobs are gone for American blue collar workers. Now these same scumbags are targeting the next rung - service sector. As the Clintons, Bushes and Obamas of the world flood our shores with illegals, the problem is going to get worse, no matter what you do in education.
PS: Until the illegals start taking the jobs of lawyers and politicians, expect nothing to change.
RCV| 7.28.10 @ 12:59PM
Not a lot of evidence that high-paying blue collar construction jobs are going to "illegals".
wolflen| 7.28.10 @ 2:03PM
ok...here is a bit of evidence ... its called California...
sestamibi| 7.28.10 @ 4:17PM
But that can't be true! Harry Reid said so himself!
Eric Cartman| 7.28.10 @ 3:23PM
RCV, do you always talk out of your ass, or just on the occasions you are here? Then again, you probably never heard of factor price equalization - either way, you are still a Liberal ahole, so that explains a lot.
RCV| 7.28.10 @ 4:29PM
Eric - I never cease to be amazed at the intellectual quality of your comments.
JimE| 7.28.10 @ 9:07PM
Too bad we can't say the same thing for yours.
abigal| 7.28.10 @ 10:27PM
My husband has been a contractor for over 35 years and he is being driven out of business by people who pay illegals under the table and by companies run by illegals who underbid him. He cannot compete with people who do not pay federal, state, and local taxes and fees, not to mention all of the various insurances on his employees. For the first time in the history of his firm, his men have been put on unemployment this year. Contractors all over this city are facing this. My son sees the same thing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He says the illegals are working as slave labor for $4-$5 an hour. They are being exploited and our way of life is being destroyed. Wake up RCV. You must work for a government agency, certainly never had to make a payroll.
Eric Cartmen| 7.29.10 @ 12:57AM
Well, it's too bad, abigal. See, to liberal aholes like RVC, yours is simply an anecdotal story - one to cluck their tongues at because 60 Minutes hasn't done a story on you yet - you're just a person with a sad tail - probably exaggerated. They need a 10-year Harvard study to find their asses with a flashlight and a blood hound to see if it really does smell like roses. They're complete assholes - don't waste your breath nor bullet - make every bullet count when the time comes.
AMENBRO| 7.29.10 @ 9:11AM
Abigail i live in NC. NC also gives ILLEGAL ALIEnS IN-STATE TUITION gratis. When I returned to school even thought I have lived in NC for 1o years as a property owner UNC forced me to fill out a ten page detailed history of my previous addresses for 20 years. i was transfered all over the country by my previous employer for the preceding 15 years. I had to wait a semester to start school so they could verify it all.
Jobs listed here in NC are for the most part EEOC listings that prevent employers from being sued cause the job is a really an in-house promtion.
Tarboro NC wants to or already has given ILLEGALS the right to vote. No you are not anecdotal. I have been unemployed for 2 years. The temp services only hire the folks they can pay 25 cents over minimum wage. If you got a resume you are ruled out as someone who will not stick around & let them exploit your abilities. Minorities predominate their work force.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS are the reason why, Our Governor is a bloomin idiot as was herepredessesor. NC is so insipidly elitest DEM controlled it is disheartening to say the least. the NC university sytem turns out AMERICA HATING idiots, there is a strain of ITELLECTUAL IDIOCY that is palbable, speak up & you get slammed . Say NPR & everyone gets dewey betweenst the legs.
Anonymous| 7.30.10 @ 1:21AM
abigal is right. Got to Texas. See $250K- 500K houses built by day labor-- sh*tty construction, found out when something falls apart and the owner has to get it fixed. See plumbers have to hire a "leak finder" company (no kidding) because their guys (day labor, they'll claim to be expert in anything) can find where a leak is coming from. Painting, electrical work, etc.-- you name, it day labor does and you won't find out until something has to be redone (expensively).
Nerdy Doug| 7.28.10 @ 6:12PM
Appleby, you are dead-on correct. The only saving grace is that eventually girls wake up and realize that her once gorgeous-but-stupid stud isn't going to give her a good future life, and the guy who was once the disdained nerd has done well for himself and starts looking attractive. It usually sets in at about age 30, and too often, a few kids too late.
By this time, the tables have turned and the ex-babe is no longer the hot item she was a decade earlier. It's how we end up with the flood of working single mothers we enjoy today.
Spoken from personal experience.
BackToBasics| 7.28.10 @ 11:55PM
Those in high school who ignore the most-popular personality game and just continue to study and enjoy their own interests and friends will do far better in life than the partiers and drinkers. I also continue to bring attention here to the fact that there are millions of underemployed but highly skilled American-born workers. I personally know 5 ex-engineers, 3 of whom have current skills but who still cannot find a decent job. One works driving a small truck for about $12 / hour, another works in retail for about the same money etc... The main reason, they are underemployed or unemployed is that they considered too old and/or they are white and cannot fill the minority quota for the company or government position. If the H1-B job-visa program was deferred for a few years and these American-born citizens were given the good jobs instead, most of them could find work for which they trained for most of their lives.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.28.10 @ 7:17AM
No matter what is done to public schools, they will never work right because they are the result of central economic planning. The day is quickly approaching where students who want to learn can simply sign up on line and go to school on the internet without leaving their houses.
Public schools are dead. It is an outmoded form whose failures are well known. Ironically, few are working on the solutions preferring to spend billions to prop up the failed model.
BH| 7.28.10 @ 1:14PM
You guys need to read Charles Murry. Private schools, charter schools or public schools will never be able to educate students with average IQs of 85-90 to proficiency.Why are the worst schools in the inner cities ? Because the average IQ of these kids is 85-90. When the government says to these people we will take care of you they will never have an incentive to develop what little ability they have. We don't need laborers from south of the border, we need the government to stop trying to help these people. If the choice is between starvation or menial work, they will soon learn the lesson of responsibility or die.
BH| 7.28.10 @ 1:34PM
AND STOP BLAMING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR OTHER PEOPLE"S FAILURES ! Students who don't graduate have no one to blame but themselves & their parents. Why is no one complaining about the suburbs & their schools ? Because their kids are getting educated. Why ? IQ potential & parent expectations. Quit making teachers scapegoats. The biggest critics are ones who never stepped into a classroom. We don't hold college instructors to these standards & they have a higher rate of dropouts. Why because when students are adults we hold them responsible for their own learning, but somehow teachers should be able to force a 17 year old to learn.
Debbuch| 7.29.10 @ 2:23AM
None of you have a clue what it is like in a classroom and neither do legislators. Regulations require teachers to do mountains of paperwork, feed students breakfast, lunch and in some cases dinner, before school programs, be watchdogs for physical, mental and drug abuse (or use), bell to bell teaching, and afterschool programs. We have mandated inclusion of students who are psychologically or physically unable to function in a classroom, or "chemically enhanced" by their doctor or themselves and incapable of learning because of it. You have 45 minutes of class to do the paperwork, keep the peace and yet required to intellectually stimulate a class of 30 or more students who have been conditioned by their parents and society that what they want is all that matters, and everyone gets a trophy regardless of effort. You just get rolling on a lesson and one of your loose cannons goes off. Unable to mete out real discipline, or shame a child for their poor behavior, and discouraged from sending them to the office because it reflects poorly on your "classroom management" skills (besides the time to write out the referral) you attempt to redirect the child while the other 29 students totally lose interest in the subject at hand, and have their cell phones and ipods in hand and playing. (electronic devices are not allowed but to take them up might step on their civil liberties, and besides who wants to be held responsible for them) Students in fact soon learn that in order to have a "free day" they can rotate who's the troublemaker of the day and never face any real consequences. Add in the mandated, pc sanitised curriculum, student absenteeism, district policy of "zeros aren't permitted even if you do no work" and threats to tie job performance evaluations to how many children feel like showing up and passing a state mandated test once a year, and it is all a no-win situation. What child is inspired to learn under these conditions? What teacher is insipred to teach under these conditions?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.29.10 @ 8:20AM
In no other line of work could you fail so miserably and stand there with all the arrogance you can muster and claim it's the customer's (students) fault.
debbuch| 7.29.10 @ 12:31PM
I am saying that the process is set up so no one could succeed! The game is rigged but the barkers keep reeling in the rubes! Alternative Certification candidates in from the corporate world, can see how the schools have taken on the failed policies, mindset and procedures of the corporate world. Set your employees up to fail, give them more than can humanly be done, an inferior product (system) with quality corners having been cut, and give them low marks at eval time so you can justify no raise. I spent 32 years in the retail/service industry... I know where of I speak. You try it and see how you fare.... And yes, in the end it is ultimately the responsibility of the student & parents...but society (you) has absolved them from any culpability!
debbuch| 7.29.10 @ 12:37PM
...you also forget that one spot on the assembly line of education is dependent on the previous stations having done their work. If a vehicle comes to you with out the chassis it should have for you to install the doors, what happens to the 29 vehicles that back up without getting their doors while you do the work of the other station...there is no budget for extra help (if that's not too convoluted an analogy lol)
I work with the most needy and yet the most resistent group...the felons, drug uses and persistent misbehavers... you can lead them to the learning but you CANNOT make them learn!
BH| 7.30.10 @ 3:14PM
O'Stalin, you arrogant bastard, you are an idiot ! I would love to see how different it would be if you taught.
Roy| 8.1.10 @ 6:55PM
"Customer", my left ear - customers are people spending their own money.
Students are there because the government forces them to be(in many cases). Even the ones who have some idea how important it is to their future have not put their own money into it.
And if you had actually read the above you'd know the post was mostly about the bureaucro-blather imposed on teachers, and was blaming THAT. And, much as I think teacher's unions are part of the problem - I pretty much agree that regulo-nonsense is a bigger problem.
Alert1201| 7.28.10 @ 8:06AM
Christ Rock was not right about the GED as being Good Enough Diploma. It actually has a stigma associated with it that can put you at a disadvantage against those with actual diplomas. We home school are kids and most in the movement keeps away from GEDs for that reason.
AnnaG| 7.28.10 @ 10:06AM
To Alert1201 -- I think Chris Rock was being facetious and making the point that a GED does not measure up. The author of this article alludes to the fact that it's seen as a second-class diploma in the next sentence.
SpiralArchitect | 7.28.10 @ 1:52PM
Alert1201 - please slow down and take the time to read the Thesaurus ( perhaps a dictionary will suffice). Home schooling is fine, but the teachers need to know proofreading and speeling as well -
The 'Good Enough Diploma' comment was exactly ont arget - "students' accept the GED as good enough, taking it in lied of [u]working[/u] toward their full time ( and credits ) required for a HS diploma. HS diploma, nah, I'll take the easy way out,quit now and get a GED, it is "gud nuf' ".
Hopefully, you were simply in a hurry and not that far off bas, your final sentence is what I would call a by-product of the public school system. - Sorry to come accross so abrassive, sometimes it illustrates a point more vividly.
MoeBlotz| 7.28.10 @ 8:11AM
How many entry level jobs for those low skilled dropouts and under achievers were killed by minimum wage? Previous generations gained valuable work experience in summer or part time during school semesters,but more of those jobs are eliminated every time minimum wages are raised by our rulers.
JP| 7.28.10 @ 8:48AM
Hunger was always a motivating factor for many of our nation's ealry industrialists. And many of them could barely read and write. Carnegie swept shop floors at age 15. And if memory serves me correctly, Cornielius Vanderbilt's only skill was navigating a barge from Staten Island to Manhatten. For most of these people it was litterally work or starve.
I say this only in the context of our near future. The federal government is broke and will likely default on its obligations in the near future. Those convienent EBT cards will be worthless. We allowed out shcools to be highjacked by "experts" and other activists because life became so easy. In our efforts to reap the most efficient profits, our society allowed entire industries to be outsourced. Today there isn't one skill that cannot be sent to China or India. And for those flocking into the health care industry, well get used to low pay and being a government employee.
If I was to offer any young person advice I would tell them to save every dime and buy a few acres of land. Farming may be the only vocation left that cannot be outsourced. Everyone has to eat.
Roy| 8.1.10 @ 6:59PM
?? Sure farming can be outsourced, it's called importing food and it's been done since...prehistory?
As far as the healthcare industry - as my dentist who wants $3000 for a procedure they will do in India for $300 is about to find out, that can be outsourced too.
Eventually, our regulo-nonsense spouting masters will be forced to quit arbitrarily ruining our competitiveness.
rwr| 7.28.10 @ 9:05AM
it is not necessarily the degree but the work ethic that breeds success. not the first paycheck but the others that follow is what i taught my children.
PJ| 7.28.10 @ 9:14AM
Has anyone thought about encouraging these kids to join the military or do they need a HS diploma to get in? If they don't need a HS diploma but only possess at least an average IQ & no learning disabilities, what a great environment the military has to learn a skill. The military will instill discipline which is what most of these kids lack & necessary in order to learn. I knew a few slackers who signed up, spent a few years defending this country, & left w/an employable skill & sometimes a college degree.
For those dropouts who have undiagnosed or even diagnosed learning disabilities, there is no simple answer.
Old Soldier| 7.28.10 @ 9:33AM
The military generally requires a HS Diploma prior to enlistment. I'm not sure if a GED will suffice these days. Even us grunts use a lot of technology and must have high reading comprehension. The more skilled support positions fields like aircraft maintenance and electronics require very high levels of math.
PJ| 7.28.10 @ 10:24AM
I was thinking for these slackers w/or w/out a HS diploma to start them off in low level jobs needed such as cooks or supply drivers or did they outsource all those job types?
Before the military accepts you, don't you have to take aptitude tests? Generally one has to know how to read in order to take these tests. If scored high enough might that not offset the lack of HS diploma?
Lack of reading skills can indicate a disability. I wouldn't expect the military to take them in. IMHO, lazy but intellectually normal kids would benefit from the disciplined, military training so they can use those acquired skills in the civilian world.
Ole_Sarge| 7.28.10 @ 9:48PM
"I was thinking for these slackers w/or w/out a HS diploma to start them off in low level jobs needed such as cooks or supply drivers or did they outsource all those job types? "
PJ, those were "outsourced" back in the 1990s under VP Gore's Government Reduction stuff. Seems the only thing we reduced were the number of people in uniform. For a time, most of the military that was "reduced in force" went ahead and took the "contractor" jobs that they once did in the military. Now, those are mostly done by "sub-contractors" hiring "third country nationals."
Harry the Horrible| 7.28.10 @ 9:25AM
The lack of trade schools, and the demise of "shop class" has led to catastophe. Not every one is suited to go on to college. Work in a skilled trade is also path to comfort and prosperity. I know that, as a computer geek, I have nothing but respect for electricians, carpenters, mechanics and plumbers and don't grudge 'em a cent of what I have pay them. In fact, I envy their easy familiarity with their tools and their work. Many time I have wished that I had the same skills with hand and power tools.
Old Soldier| 7.28.10 @ 9:37AM
I was just thinking the same thing. Were did the vocational high schools go?
When I was in Junior High, everyone had wood and metal shop classes. Then you decided if you wanted to attend the regional vocational High School or the regular HS. Several of my friends chose the vocational school, picked up great skills, and got themselves into good apprentice programs.
By the time I was a junior in college, they were making crazy money and very happy.
Ole_Sarge| 7.28.10 @ 9:56PM
Most vocational classes were dropped in the 1990s, back went everyone was going to get one of those high paying "knowledge" jobs in IT or in a service industry.
We really have to go back and instruct boys and girls on how to PRODUCE something of value.
I must be old, but I remember having school gardens when I was in grades K-3. It was part science class, part math and lots of fun! In Junior high, we did things like sewing and home Economics (which included not just cooking and meals, but budget and home appliance repairs too)
High school there were lots of "hands on" skill building classes, plus a regional vocational school that was competitive to get into, had to have good grades and a solid mathematics and communication skills. My friends that went through it were earning FAR ABOVE minimum wage when we all graduated in 1978. Some went on to own their own businesses.
There is a bias against working with your hands and your head, in addition to getting an education and having high grades.
Glen H| 7.28.10 @ 9:27AM
A good article, but I call bullshit on the idea that welders need to know trigonometry. Basic geometry, probably; trigonometry, no.
Clinton nee Publius | 7.28.10 @ 10:11AM
Why is it that when liberal-progressive policies continually fail we have to have all of these "reforms" to try and make them more market-oriented instead of admitting that liberal-progressivism has never worked - not even once - and get on with something else?
The system fails because liberal-progressivism doctrine requires that accountability and responsibility be removed from government programs.
The reality is that public education has been a complete failure for us. We now have a literacy rate that is worse than that in Costa Rica - in the face of the reality that real dollar expenditures on education rose 247% between 1961 and 2005 alone (courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education). This tells you the line about funding isn't the issue. Today's educator has 2.47 times as much financial resources as educators did in 1961. Do we have a 247% increase in the graduation rate? Nope. Do we have a 247% decrease in teen pregnancies? Nope. Do we have a 247% increase in the percentile of kids going on to college? Nope.
There is only one solution and that is to admit this was a failure and privatize it in a fiscally-responsible manner (as set forth in the Lovellian economics structure - google it) that provides transparency, accountability and real opportunity for all of the stakeholders.
Petronius| 7.28.10 @ 10:34AM
I'm showing my superannuation here, but the #1 fact nobody wants to broach is that those old fashioned school marms and the Black Veiled Monsters physically forced stubborn students to learn enough to survive in the labor markets of their day. They laid the blame for under achievement on television and top 40 radio.
Today most kids aim for American Idol if they aren't doing Wi or X box, Playstation, or just staring at whatever they like on the flat screen. They refuse to be taught anything that won't get them on ET. But then again, most of their teachers are my generation's losers who warm their chairs in the faculty lounge waiting for that pension check from TIAA-CREF. As for Catholic schools; they are a damned site better than most public schools but they too are now dispensing the koolade of the "Social Gospel" which is lifted verbatim from The Declaration of Interdependence by Will Hutton, a British socialist who currently poisons the new administration of "Call Me Dave" Cameron in #10 Downing St. London W1.
That leaves home schooling and doing it yourself if you want your Children to embrace truth, common sense, and become competent adults.
Larry| 7.28.10 @ 11:00AM
My observation is that the dropout rate is highly correlated with the out of wedlock birth rate and single parent rate. This is particularly true for males in general, and black males in particular. Raising children is hard work, and without the support of a spouse, it is even harder. Also, when the males reach puberty, if there is not a working male in the house, it makes it harder and harder to force him to accept the drudgery of high school and get his degree.
owyheewine| 7.28.10 @ 11:01AM
Dr. Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) has written, and correctly so, that only about 1/3 of our population has the mental capacity to handle a traditional college curriculum. Probably 80% of the remainder have the capacity to learn some basic trade skills. That leaves quite a lot of our folks that are capable of only menial tasks, most of which are populated by the illigal alien crowd.
As long as we have a minimum wage that requires pay above workers' ability to add value to society we'll have chronic unemployment that will only increase as our belove government adds mandated costs to employers.
The technological transformation of our society has made the minimally skilled almost unemployable, and as long as our education system keeps trying to educate all kids the same way, they will sink further into oblivion.
Ralph| 7.28.10 @ 1:14PM
Murray has also commented on college as a job training and screening tool (to avoid charges of discrimination). Waste of money and time. What good is a gender studies degree in the free market?
More schooling in a formal setting is not the answer, less is (John Gatto, "Weapons of Mass Education").
When a community college (Jackson, Michigan) acknowledges that a high school diploma cannot be trusted, the education bureaucracy has jumped the shark. Jackson will start requiring new students to be able to read and write at a seventh grade level in addition to having a high school diploma or equivalent. Seventh grade.
So what exactly does a high school level diploma mean? What does any diploma mean? That you have successfully navigated a bureaucratic system, and probably more than likely seek another bureaucratic organization to work for rather than strike out on your own as an innovator.
This problem of economic dislocation due to changing technology is not new. The industrial revolution also displaced a lot of workers, and we tend to think of it as an overall good thing. Sumner's congressional testimony of August 22, 1878 is interesting in contrast to today's debates.
Ned| 7.28.10 @ 11:07AM
Seems to me that one of the major issues is not just the lack of quality in teaching, but what is being taught. My kids are in their 20s now, and the younger will have his BA in 10 months. He is still being taught garbage at his "major university", but I have at least succeeded in forewarning him of the ideological twist to everything that they put before him.
In the lower grades it was a constant battle to inform them that just because teacher said so, does not make something true, and yes, teacher is feeding you bull. I was never sure which upset me the most, the lefty teachers who were too stupid to know better, or the lefty teachers who sold the sloganeering as 'education', knowing what they were doing was disingenuous.
The poor kids got nearly nothing about history, the barest of bones in math and science, but by God they got a big nasty spoonful of diversity and green indoctrination in every classroom. We still laugh about the writing class one son had to take that was taught by a screeching feminist - he quickly dubbed the book that they were required to read and write about the "Evil Penis book"... and this was a *writing* class. His attitude that "this is all crap" did not help his grade.
And of course, we're overlooking that the vast majority of teachers finish in the bottom third of the college graduating class.
Ned| 7.28.10 @ 3:22PM
and, of course, the kids know that most of what is put before them is crap, so they have even less incentive to pay attention... but Jack (below) is probably correct....
dw| 7.28.10 @ 12:31PM
The consruction industry used to be a place for Americans to find entry level work but over the last 30-40 years it has been taken over by the immigrant travelers from the south. It has resulted in both depressing the wage structure and pushing out citizens that use to be able to make a living doing that work.
The invasion of the illegal alien over the last few decades has resulted in displaced American workers. run away budgets (medical, social welfare, education, prison, etc.) and as stated before a skewed supply and demand ratio in terms of wage earnings.
BTW,these were not jobs Americans wouldn't do, they just became jobs that no longer would support American families.
Pat| 7.28.10 @ 12:46PM
What a load of nonsense – the $4.3 billion Race to the Top program is simply another in a long series of scams designed to give you, the American taxpayer, hope. If you have a good education and a likelihood of long term employment, rest assured your taxes are going to support other Americans for their entire lives, from the cradle to the grave they’ll need your willing or unwilling financial support to survive – and it would be sweet if you could believe that another in a long line of government failures, with names like “Race to the Top”, will magically eliminate your lifelong burden and legal requirement to help these folks – but, no matter how catchy the title of these federal programs, it won’t – for the rest of your life their hands will be reaching into your wallet.
Take a realistic look at a decaying, and typical, American city – Detroit for example. Although citizens are fleeing yearly, Detroit still boasts a population of around 800,000. The average price of a Detroit home based on sales over the last couple years is $9,500 – that’s shocking but correct, every new car on your local dealer lot has a sticker price higher than the average Detroit home. Unemployment within Detroit is estimated to be around 35% - and many of those who are employed work for the government, either directly or indirectly through various taxpayer grants, subsidies or stipends. And, yes, there are programs to re-train the unemployed, but the real purpose of these programs is to employ the trainers, clerks and program administers – the students don’t pay tuition, they’re paid to attend class, if they weren’t they wouldn’t be there. When the funds run out for these training programs, new programs will be invented and funded – sort of a circle of life thing.
For every 1,000 Detroit kids who enter 9th grade, less than 400 will graduate within 4 to 5 years. What happens to the 600 to 700 kids who won’t earn a diploma? Will they learn a useful trade? Some few will, but most will drift from one low paying job to unemployment to welfare to another low paying job to unwed parents to grandparents raising their grandkids. Why doesn’t the government correct this situation? Because every government entity that has tried has failed. No one wants to be responsible for the continuing failure of this city’s education system, not the city, not the state, not the feds – they realize the situation is without hope or remedy. But they also realize the American taxpayer needs the naive hope there can be an eventual solution, that the situation will somehow turn around, that American wage earners and taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the rest of their lives. So, “No Child Left Behind”, “Race to the Top”, “Climb to the Stars”, “Every Kid a Superstar” and a myriad of other expensive and nonsensical programs with various and ridiculous sounding names – all designed to perpetuate the myth.
Jack| 7.28.10 @ 1:36PM
None of you get it although some come close. Even the author says the problem is the schools--it's not so! The problem is that these kids come to school with no discipline and no respect for authority--it's not the schools' responsibility to teach that--it's the parents responsibility! Second is immigration and third is minimum wage.
Petronius| 7.28.10 @ 4:02PM
True enough Jack. But that begs the question: What spawned liberalism? Authority figures who abused their powers in acts of petty vindictiveness and self indulgence. Back in my parochial school in the not so fabulous 50's, the first things we were taught were the concepts of altruism as foundation of our faith and fair play in our relationships. Then the priests and nuns would mete out punishments in the most unfair and arbitrary manner, often for no reason. Day after day when these things happened not only to me but any student who did not fit their mold, the refrain of any and all was, "when I have kids, I'm going to let them do whatever they want." Herewith, the result.
When pressed to answer for their abuse by some parents, their response was always, "your kid has to learn that life is Not Fair. If he doesn't Get It, that's his problem." All those priests and nuns did was make enemies for life. Not once did any school authority give a rats rear end about the damage they did. We were just supposed to take it. It was a Vince Lombardy academy. Conformity wasn't everything. It was the only thing, unless you were a jock. Guys who made the teams could break most rules at will and never suffer.
Today the students they abused control all cultural institutions and use them to extirpate everything in the world that is not of themselves. That's why destroying Christianity is at the top of their to do list. I say this in very truth as I was once one of Them.
If civility is to be restored, those who wield power in any setting must obey all of the laws and rules they are charged with enforcing over all others.
That'll be the day.
Fist of the Fleet| 7.28.10 @ 2:06PM
We're screwed.
jrjr| 7.28.10 @ 4:53PM
Today the JUDGE tossed out the AZ - no illegals law. Well done, just what the Hussein WH needs to help with the next votes. If we have 15 million illegals in the US and 10 million were employed, and they would leave (and never return), what would we do with all of the jobs? As well put by Fist of the Fleet -- "We're screwed."
RCV| 7.28.10 @ 6:31PM
Of course the judge -- who, by the way, got the appointment on the recommendation of Arizona Republican senator John Kyl -- tossed out the law. It was blatantly unconstitutional.
CJohnson| 7.28.10 @ 5:10PM
My niece wants to be 'Paris Hilton'; and the schools are doing a fine job preparing her.
RCV| 7.28.10 @ 6:32PM
Don't blame the schools. Nobody gets to be a Paris Hilton without their family's long-term help.
dennisl59| 7.28.10 @ 9:55PM
So tell us something we don't already know Mr. Biddle. 40 years of American Public Education has destroyed the 'informed electorate' and created Government Drones. In my opinion.
Denver Todd| 7.28.10 @ 10:02PM
Better than my 4 year degree in business was my choice to go back to school at a public technical college to learn a machine repair skill. I haven't been unemployed since. You can learn cooking, cosmetology, LPN, welding, etc. at these schools, all leading to employment.
Anna Keppa| 7.29.10 @ 12:09AM
"The fact that America's public schools were never really intended for actually providing an education, but for inculcating civic values (and to prevent the expansion of Catholic schools), is certainly part of the problem."
That's not a "fact", that's an unsupported assertion that collapses under scrutiny. I'm a product of public education, starting with a one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1950's. By the time my high school education ended I had attended a number of public schools, plus a Catholic school and a short time at a very hoity-toity prep school. It used to be that public schools AND private/Catholic actually taught important and useful subjects, and it taught them to millions of Americans who grew up to make the country the economic colossus it once was--- until recently. It's perverse to argue that our public schools were established merely to propagandize and to prevent the expansion of popery. Perhaps the writer would like to revise and extend his remarks?
Marc Jeric| 7.29.10 @ 2:13AM
Show me a strong union and I will show you a dead or dying industry - automobile, steel, textile, apparel, electronics, Postal Service, schools - come to mind. Our education was the best in the world up to the 1960's and now is on the level of Zimbabwe, thanks to teachers unions.
scythe| 7.30.10 @ 6:19PM
Did it ever occur to anyone to notice that there are many in our society who will NEVER be educated because they are unwilling or too stupid? Is that taboo? Seems to me I read a piece by Heather McDonald describing the capabilities of various ethnic groups in this country and what was most striking is that the Mexican population is the least educated and the most ineducable. Yeah right. That horde of millions of peasants here sucking up your property and mine may not amount to much. So here we are in the 21st century EXPORTING JOBS and IMPORTING THE UNSKILLED and we wonder why we have a problem? Rework all trade agreements to benefit American workers FIRST and STOP ALL IMMIGRATION until the jobless numbers reset to more non threatening numbers. In the meanwhile tell Congress to stop handing out work VISAS like they are campaign promises and rethink the future of this country. Should we continue to allow third world invaders to take up space and demand our support? It is OUR COUNTRY. FIRST and FOREMOST.