[quote=Hobie]I would like to LAUD take the lead and create vocational and trade schools. Not all kids are destined for college.
Of course, that will play havoc with the fed mandates and funding, and of course there would be an expectation of a growing economy to hire all these trades. But deep down, they know California is toast under the current leadership so it will never happen. Oh well.[/quote]
Could not agree more. Those jobs for skilled tradesmen/women are some of the most difficult to off-shore, too. IMHO, getting rid of and/or downsizing vocational ed was one of the very worst decisions made in the educational arena.
Those classes were lifesavers for many of the people who gravitated toward them, and I know a number of kids who took voc ed classes when we were young, and they’ve always managed to get good, well-paying jobs. Oftentimes, they did quite a bit better than those of us who got degrees.
The key to having a strong economy is having the ability to quickly change whenever the business climate changes. That can only be done with a diverse workforce. We cannot all become engineers (or whatever the “degree of the day” is), nor should we ever aspire to have an economy that is built on a single sector or a narrow group of sectors.
