Mar 19 2009
State and local officials promise tuition help to low income college students
State and local officials promised a group of low-income middle school students that if they were to go to college, the state would provide them tuition assistance once they were in college. This is part of a promise that state officials are making to low-income students to get them to go to college.
Why does the state think they should push everyone into college?
Careers that do not involve college need workers. Tech companies, construction, plumbing and car repair are all careers that do not require college. Instead, these career require workers to have specialized training. Some of this training is even available at the high school level through ROP (regional occupation program) classes. In fact, many of these careers are in desperate need of workers.
College isn’t the solution to everything, and shouldn’t be pushed as the solution to everyone.
Plumbers and car repair shop owners can make a lot of money. Most of them can make more in a year than a college graduate makes right out of school. In a recession economy - where places aren’t hiring - havins specialized skills in jobs that do not go away is a better guarantee of work and income than a college degree. In a recession economy cars still must be repaired, pipes fixed, and technology kept up at companies. These jobs don’t move with the movement of the economy.
Why is the state pushing one solution - college - for everyone?
Furthermore, kids who take ROP classes are involved in reading, writing and math. Maybe the learning isn’t coming in the traditional classroom setting, but that is ok so long as the skills are learned. Someone learning car repair has to figure out math, a technology student must learn to read manuals to help them out, or to write code. These are classes in the non-traditional environment that greatly benefit students of all sorts - especially those who don’t learn well in a crowded classroom where they cannot get the attention they need.
The state needs to stop pushing everyone into college, or college prep curriculum. It isn’t the answer to everything. It certainly isn’t the snawer to problems now and in the future with the workforce. Instead, let people choose, and offer them the ROP classes so they have options in life.
