[quote=CA renter]The problem, once again, is that a disproportionate majority of the university track students would be white/Asian (and wealthier, in general), and the vocational track would be black/Hispanic (and poorer, in general) if they tried to replicate this system in the US. How do you respond to accusations of racism?[/quote]Easy, when it start, just tell those doubter that it’s no different than it is today. Just look at the demographic of those who are being incarcerated and the demographic of those who are in higher education and the demographic of those blue collar workers. Then hopefully, 5-10 years from now, you can show that there will be less incarcerating due to the fact that people have the skills needed to work. If they work, they’d have less time to commit crime. If they work, they’ll pay more taxes and we spend less $ incarcerating people.
The elephant in the room is, the teacher’s union. Do you think they’ll go for such a drastic change? This would most likely reduce the amount of teachers needed. At least academic teachers. We would need more vocational “teachers”.
[quote=CA renter]But I would never advocate for it unless we had a third way that would enable these students and “late bloomers” to move to the university/college track. We would have to really strengthen the community college system (one of the greatest components of our educational system, IMO) so that kids and young adults could shift over if/when they want to do so.[/quote]What’s wrong with our current community college system? I think they’re great. If the demand increase, we can also expand them and hire more teachers. Today, anyone can sign up for classes to JC. So, anyone can change career quite easily.
