California to Launch “Career Technical Education”

Most trends in American culture start in California. In general, that is neither good nor bad, merely a fact. However, an initiative in Governor Schwarzenegger’s new budget calls for something that is decidedly good, and one hopes the rest of the nation catches on. The Governator wants to spend $52 million to jump start vocational education. Having received such an education himself in his native Austria, Mr. Schwarzenegger is living proof that vocational ed is not a second class education but an alternative path to success.

The simple fact of the matter is a university education isn’t for everyone. This is not an elitist view unless one presupposes that academia is somehow more noble and worthy than being able to fix automobiles, construct homes and operate the most technical of machines. In medicine, a nurse is often more valuable to the patient than a doctor, and when the lights go out in the house, an electrician is more useful than a poet (or internet writer). When Her Majesty gave an OBE to a janitor a couple of years ago, this journal stated that it was deserved; after all, who would want to live in a world without janitors?

America, however, does a terrible job when it comes to providing the skills needed to undertake jobs that require the kind of knowledge one doesn’t get at State U. As the world economy globalizes, certain skills are going to be more in demand, and one won’t develop them with a 4-year bachelor’s degree. There is now no road for kids to travel to secure those skills, although some private technical colleges are trying. Usually, the kids have to blaze their own trails, and some never find their way.

California’s high schools suffer from a drop-out rate of about 1/3, and in LA, it’s as high as half in some places. Clearly, the system isn’t working for those who leave early. Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan is, according to the Los Angeles Times, to integrate “academics with technical training, preparing students for jobs in fields such as computer animation, forensic investigation, video production, culinary arts, healthcare and engineering.” This would then lead to community colleges (America’s great unsung educational success) and in some cases, onto a four-year university.

Back in the old days, it didn’t matter much if a kid finished high school. He could go down to the plant and get a job on the assembly line or to the pit and start digging coal. It was possible for a blue collar worker to live a middle class lifestyle. That has changed with the arrival of the global economy. America hasn’t figured out how to educate those who need something other than what universities currently offer. Governor Schwarzenegger is clearly onto something, and he deserves the support of the legislature (and he seems to have it). After all, if a bricklayer from Austria who got this kind of education can become governor of the most populous state in the union, there might just be something to it.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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