The above is the title of an article in today’s Daily Press, which is part one of a two-part series. The article lays out that many students – even graduates – are leaving high school unprepared for the workplace, forcing the companies to hire foreigners or forgo expansion plans.
Many recent high school graduates who apply for jobs at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk can’t read a tape measure. They aren’t sure what to do with a wrench or a hammer. Their reading skills are weak, and many lack a good grasp of math and science.
[…]
As of early November, Colonna’s, which employs 390 people, had 73 openings.
Some of the reasons behind the problem:
- Many students aren’t exposed to the skilled trades as teens. (Is mandatory vocational training the answer?)
- Students are graduating without the math and science knowledge required by many businesses.
- Too many youths with the potential to work in the skilled trades are dropping out of school.
When more than 75% of the employers responding to a survey say that they had problems hiring employees, when 81% of businesses with positions not requiring a high school diploma can’t find qualified people to hire, we have a serious problem, folks.
And it’s not just Virginia. The problem is appearing nationwide, with potentially horrible results:
A report released this fall by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education notes that as baby boomers begin retiring nationwide, those replacing them will be less educated. It’s a shift that has the potential to lower personal incomes and decrease the country’s tax base over the next 15 years…
And this could be disastrous for the Virginia economy:
From 1980 to 2000, per capita personal income in Virginia grew by 47 percent. However, the public policy center calculated that the state’s personal income will grow by less than 1 percent over the next 14 years because of changing demographics and fewer people earning high school diplomas and college degrees.
There was a time when getting a good education was something that everyone strove for. It was the ticket out of the class to which you had been born. The emphasis on eduction was everywhere: home, school, church. I’m not sure when this all changed but it has, particularly here in Hampton Roads.
About 68 percent of Hampton Road students earned a high school diploma in 2005 compared with 77 percent of students statewide.
Those who do not take advantage of education do so at their own peril. We need to emphasize this at every opportunity.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Kevin — Whatever federal law you’re talking about is irrelevant. The option of going to public school will still we there.
Two points here:
1. There are not enough slots in private schools to handle the influx of students. That’s what I was getting at when I said that the large majority of students will be served by the public school system, which means that we should all want it to be the best it can be.
2. I agree that we are expecting the public schools to do too much. I certainly didn’t learn how to read a tape measure or use a hammer in school.
“Whatever federal law you’re talking about is irrelevant. The option of going to public school will still we there.”
So whoever has the means will be able to get a “better” education, Jack? What about students with special education needs? They are much more expensive to educate than general education students. Do we give them extra money or do we ask them to suck it up and either pay higher tuition or go to “inferior” public schools? And what about NCLB? If you believe that private schools are better, then aren’t you leaving students behind in “inferior” public schools?
Just a point to about private schools. They are not required to have NCLB applied to them. Can we have them applied to private schools if vouchers were given?
Kevin — I’ll try to take your questions one-at-a-time:
1) So whoever has the means will be able to get a “better” education, Jack?
That’s how things are now. With vouchers, the less-wealthy will also have a chance at private education.
2) What about students with special education needs? They are much more expensive to educate than general education students. Do we give them extra money or do we ask them to suck it up and either pay higher tuition or go to “inferior” public schools?
Again, that’s how things are now. Vouchers would help. If you want to give more to “special needs” children, I really don’t have a problem with that, so long as it is done at the state and local level.
3) And what about NCLB?
It is already unconstitutional. I challenge you to find ANY provision in the U.S. Constitution for the federal (feral) government to be involved in the schools.
4) If you believe that private schools are better, then aren’t you leaving students behind in “inferior” public schools?
No, I believe that the public schools would be forced to improve.
5) [Private schools] not required to have NCLB applied to them. Can we have them applied to private schools if vouchers were given?
NCLB is already unconstitutional. (See challenge above.) The reason public schools are so bad is because of the government. Do you want to ruin the private schools, too?
All I want to do is give the less-well-off children the option to take some of the money that would be spent on their public education, and shop around for the best school they can get. Why do you oppose that?
Vivian —
1) If the money were made available, slots in private schools would open up as schools expand and new schools open. I do want the public schools to be the best they can. Competition has proven to be a good inducement in private schools (which is why Norfolk Academy is so expensive). Why should we not try it in public schools?
2) I agree. However, my older children have taken “shop” and “home ec.” They are optional, though.
I don’t buy that slots will open up in a timely enough fashion to accomodate the public school students. Just look at the logistics of it: acquiring the land, building the schools – how can it happen timely? So the competition argument to me is BS.
There are a number of reasons why Norfolk Academy is expensive, and competition is way down the line.
Regardless of NCLB, the fact is that many private schools do not have standards for teachers, especially some of the small religious schools. I was quite surprised to find that my former secretary, who had no college degree, was “teaching” at one of the private religious schools in Norfolk.
A long, long time ago, I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine (now deceased) who was on the Norfolk school board. I asked him how come private schools can mandate parental involvement but public schools can’t. He had no answer. Since then, I’ve asked parent after parent why they don’t invest the same amount of energy in the public schools as they put in the private schools. I have yet to get a response. It is as if the idea never occurred to them.
I had another friend who came to Virginia from another state where the teachers’ union was powerful. She assumed the same here and when I mentioned that we should hold teachers to certain standards, she didn’t believe it was possible, thinking that the unions would prohibit it. In a meeting we both attended, I posed this question – of teacher accountability and the power of the union – to the speaker, a member of the Norfolk school board. His answer was that it had never been done before (tradition), not that the union would balk.
As a taxpayer who has no children, I am concerned about schools because of economics. A good public school system benefits everybody. It makes no sense to me to drain personal resources – that could be used for other things, like home improvements – in order to try to give your kid a private school education. Good schools = higher property values. Good schools = a better paid workforce.
Good public schools are simply a win-win for all of us.
Just because the slot won’t open tomorrow, or even next year, they never will? That’s mighty short-sighted. Furthermore, I am also talking about competition between the public schools.
As for your former secretary, what was she teaching, and was she doing a good job? That is the criterion that matters.
As for parental involvement, the private schools can kick the kids out if the parents aren’t involved. As for the parents you ask, do they have kids in both private and public schools? Perhaps it is the flexibility of private schools that makes those parents think their involvement can change things. My wife and I are involved in 3 public-school PTAs, and there are many things we cannot do because they are against the rules. (I cannot donate money to my child’s public high school to buy computer or lab equipment, but I can donate to my private high school.)
Start giving money to private schools, and as the private slots open up start laying off teachers, and believe me there will start to be some accountability in the public schools. Even allowing children to choose which public scholl they go to would have that effect, though to a lesser degree.
” It makes no sense to me to drain personal resources – that could be used for other things, like home improvements – in order to try to give your kid a private school education.”
It does if the public schools are bad, and your child is not getting an education.
I entirely agree that “Good public schools are simply a win-win for all of us.” I see vouchers as a way to achieve better schools. The competition alone will improve the schools, and if a child takes a $5000 voucher to a private school, but it costs the public schools $7000 to educate him, there is now another $2000 for the public schools.
“All I want to do is give the less-well-off children the option to take some of the money that would be spent on their public education, and shop around for the best school they can get. Why do you oppose that?”
Sorry less-well-off children will not be improved by taking resources from them. The school systems where the money is stripped from will be force to improve with less resources. That makes sense, right? Therefore the students that will be “left behind” because their parents can’t afford to make up the gap of a private school education will be put at a disadvantage because of the voucher cash grab. Why do you support that?
You are going to ask parents to take 10-25% of their take home income to support a private school when they can get a just as good education in the public schools?
I haven’t seen where NCLB has been declared unconstitutional. Until I see that, can we hold private schools accountable to NCLB that are paid vouchers?
“The competition alone will improve the schools, and if a child takes a $5000 voucher to a private school, but it costs the public schools $7000 to educate him, there is now another $2000 for the public schools.”
Wrong…the locality and state go by student numbers and will take that money away too…It would leave $0 for them.
I don’t know why you cannot donate money to your child’s public school – there are no such rules around here and folks do it all the time.
As for short-sighted, I don’t think so. The very thing that private schools tout – smaller class sizes – will be gone if public schools students go there. I will never understand why private schools are the end-all and be-all for you folks. If you just put the same efforts into public school accountability, there wouldn’t even be a need for private schools.
Regardless of my secretary’s talents at being a secretary, she certainly was not qualified to teach anybody’s children. Teaching is not something that does not require training. For that matter, if you are willing to settle for teachers without degrees in private schools, what does that say about the quality of the education there?
You will never convince me that parental involvement in public schools is not the answer. Not vouchers, not private schools but parents, just like it was when I came thru.
It takes a village.
I think there are usually (but not always) two primary drivers behind those who are always pushing private schools:
1) the ability to get rid of students the school/parents can’t handle or don’t like; and
2) the ability to ensure that their children are NOT exposed to what most people would call a well-rounded education.
So long as those criteria are satisfied, they couldn’t care less about the actual performance of the school. And if they can destroy the public school system with this voucher BS while they’re at it? Just icing on the cake.
‘You are going to ask parents to take 10-25% of their take home income to support a private school when they can get a just as good education in the public schools?”
I want that to be an option, yes. If the public schools really do provide “just as good [an] education,” then few people will take the option.
“the locality and state go by student numbers and will take that money away too”
Very cynical about your legislators, aren’t you? But you want them to have a monopoly on the schools? Wierd.
Vivian — one cannot donate money for equipment, etc., because then the schools in poor neighborhoods would be at a disadvantage.
“The very thing that private schools tout – smaller class sizes – will be gone if public schools students go there.” Why? If there are more students, they can hire more teachers. Anyway, I can tell you that Norflok Academy did not have small classes when I was there, and it was, and still is, one of the best in the country. Class size is not a statistically significant factor in performance.
I also think that parental involvement is key. However, I think when parents have options, they get involved. Would you at least agree that school choice, if not vouchers, might improve school preformance?
MB — I am pushing school choice, both pubic and private.
In answer to (1), I ask, are not public schools allowed to expell students?
To (2), I ask, what “well-rounded education” can one get at a public school that is not available at a private school?
The public schools are already destroyed. We are looking for a way to fix them. What do you propose, “Stay the course”?
Jack, don’t bother attempting to engage me. You’ve demonstrated that you’re not interested in any kind of honest debate, and so I’m not going to waste my time on you. A final observation: a mother with the resources for multiple homes and sending you to Norfolk Academy, and you’ve never made it past the 15% tax bracket? That almost certainly makes you a liar or an idiot. Either is reason enough to ignore you.
“I ask, are not public schools allowed to expell students?”
For not passing a class? For being a behavior problem? Yeah that’s right just expel them…that’s the answer.
““the locality and state go by student numbers and will take that money away too”
Very cynical about your legislators, aren’t you? But you want them to have a monopoly on the schools? Wierd.”
Not cynical…it’s the truth. Take for instance the lottery proceeds that are supposed to help schools with improvements and technology. Right now they are being used as the base funding for schools in VA. What reason do I have to believe that they will keep funding the same? Again another false arguement.
“The public schools are already destroyed. We are looking for a way to fix them. What do you propose, “Stay the course”?”
Destroyed? There’s no accountability for private schools right? Just making sure…