[Vision2020] public school job training

keely emerinemix kjajmix1 at msn.com
Wed Aug 9 21:26:42 PDT 2006


I'm not on the school board any more, although I am still vice-chair of 
Region II for the Idaho School Boards Association.  I'm fairly well 
acquainted, I think, with a few things regarding this issue.  One is that 
Donovan's ideas, below, while I'm sure sincerely held, are not as easy to 
implement as he'd like us to think.  The other thing I know is that arguing 
with Donovan is a fruitless proposition.  Still, his ideas prompt me to 
comment, however briefly:

Year-round school cannot be accomplished by superintendent or school board 
fiat.  Parents, teachers, administrators, non-certificated staff and 
virtually everyone in the community would be affected, and to think that 
staging year-round schools is easy to decide and simple to implement is 
absurd -- no matter what the benefit, it's not like staging a prom, a 
community forum, or, as Donovan so indelicately put it in an earlier post, 
referring to the Facility Committee's work on last year's bond, a teenage 
pot-smoking circle.  Perhaps there's benefit to having class throughout the 
year.  However, there is no benefit, or justice, to assuming that that 
hasn't been decided on solely to tick off constituents -- most of whom would 
give new meaning to "ticked off" if the district proposed it.

I believe that teachers generally earn too little.  However, beginning 
salaries are mandated by the legislature, and if higher-paid teachers earn 
"two times what the average household in Latah County makes," then the 
problem is not teacher pay.  I suspect that Donovan's figures include 
single-student households, but I don't know.  What I do know is that no one 
I'm acquainted with has ever gone into K-12 teaching because of the windfall 
salary opportunities.

Last, the idea that schools are requiring courses that are "useless in 
modern society" AND that they should adopt a 14-year model to allow them to 
socialize and train children in citizenship, work skills, social skills, 
Ninja and bowstaff skills, hygiene, reading, composition, math, science, and 
the etiquette of community email forum usage is puzzling.  The federal 
government, which, under Ronald Reagan,  considered eliminating a 
Cabinet-level Department of Education has now become heavy-handed and 
stifling in its control of public education.  Curriculum options are 
narrowing because of No Child Left Behind, just as the public and the 
private sector are  demanding increased access to job training.  A curious 
thing here is that when colleges, universities, and private enterprise are 
willing and able to step alongside the schools to provide job training, 
communities often find that they lack the physical facilities required to 
house such programs.   Auto mechanics, computer training, nursing and EMT 
training, shop and vocational courses, electronics and other programs cannot 
be housed in buildings that are inadequate even for their current usage, and 
when voters choose not to invest in new, modern, technologically forward 
buildings, it's difficult to assume that the private sector will shoulder 
the entire cost.  And even if they did, students enrolled in public schools 
still have federal and state requirements that have to be met -- a reality 
that can be difficult for private enterprise to accommodate, and evidently 
impossible for Donovan to understand.

So I write this more for those who might be inclined to jump on the "schools 
don't care about job training" bandwagon.  They do.  Often, though, those 
who yell the loudest against public schools are those who refuse to lend 
their support when given an opportunity to do so.

keely




From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>, 'Tom Ivie' <the_ivies3 at yahoo.com>,  
'keely emerinemix' <kjajmix1 at msn.com>, gweitz at moscow.com,  
ringoshirl at moscow.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Response to Hansen
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 12:50:37 -0700 (PDT)

Hansen,

  MSD is wasting a great deal of money in everything  they are doing. 1) Not 
having year around school. 2) Starting teachers  off at starvation wages 
then raising them to 2x times the average  household makes in Latah. 3) 
Requiring courses that are useless in  modern society.

  Answer to question two. Every business  invests money in hiring and 
training employees. The public can split  the cost with the businesses. We 
train a student to be a nurse, truck  driver, HVAC, etc, upon hirer, that 
business pays half the cost of the  education of that student for that 
specific skill learned, that money  goes to the school to educate the next 
student for a job. Many business  have to front this whole cost of training 
and educating themselves. It  would help both the schools and the 
businesses.

  Answer to  your third question: I would combine the first two years of 
college  with are regular education. You do that by starting the children in 
  school one year earlier and letting them out one year later. When  
students went to college for a four year degree, two years would  already 
have been completed. Every student would leave school with a  skill that 
would translate to employment upon graduation. This is what  school was 
originally for, but somehow lost its purpose and focus.

   Best,

   _DJA

Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:              v\:* 
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* 
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}           
    st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }                    Question:  
Specifically speaking, how is  the Moscow School District “wasting money in  
our current school system?”

     Mr. Arnold stated:

     “Second,  they can get the private sector to help out in many job 
fields. A  company wants nothing more than a bunch of highly trained workers 
  straight out of school.”

     Question #1:  Who are “they”?

     Question #2:  Specifically speaking, how  can they “get the private 
sector to help out in many job fields?”

     By “straight out of school”,  do you mean high school or college?  
Judging by your daunting support for a WalMart Super Center,  I assume that 
you mean “straight out of high school” as most (if not  all) college 
graduates are seeking jobs that evolve into professional  careers.  If this 
is true, perhaps you would strongly support the  concept of vocational high 
schools (which are fairly common in Europe)  which would produce “highly 
trained workers straight out of school”

     Your thoughts?

     Tom Hansen
     Moscow, Idaho
                 "Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far 
one  can go."

   - Jon Dyer




---------------------------------

     From:  vision2020-bounces at moscow.com 
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Donovan Arnold
   Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006  7:10 AM
   To: Tom Ivie; keely emerinemix;  gweitz at moscow.com; 
ringoshirl at moscow.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
   Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Minimum  wage


     Tom,

   You can pay for it by getting the MSD to stop wasting money in our  
current school system. Second, they can get the private sector to help  out 
in many job fields. A company wants nothing more than a bunch of  highly 
trained workers straight out of school. Third, if the MSD would  come up 
with a proposal that didn't sound like something contrived  during a high 
school pot smoking circle they might be able gain  community support.

   Best,

   _DJA

   Tom Ivie  <the_ivies3 at yahoo.com> wrote:
     How do you pay for that when we can't even pass bonds for buildings and 
  the state has to step in to fund that?

   Donovan Arnold  <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
     . . ."under Donovan's plan, parents will have tons more free time  --
   what with being excused from the kinds of things most of us signed up for 
as
   parents -- and will then form roaming street gangs or start smoking or
   having sex."-- Keely Mix


   Keely,

   I know you are the expert on education being on the school board and  
all. But, as I understand it, all parents have already been having sex.

   _DJA

   keely emerinemix  <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote:
     Of course, under Donovan's plan, parents will have tons more free time  
--
   what with being excused from the kinds of things most of us signed up for 
as
   parents -- and will then form roaming street gangs or start smoking or
   having sex.

   keely


   From: Donovan Arnold
   To: Jerry Weitz ,  Shirley Ringo ,
   vision2020 at moscow.com
   Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Minimum wage
   Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:55:21 -0700 (PDT)

   Jerry,

   I agree with you 100% regarding the workforce training. The school system
   needs to start kids one year earlier, let them out one year later ,and 
use
   those two extra years to train youth a job skill, good work ethic, how to
   search for and find a job, keep a job, and advance in that field.

   They also need to teach youth how to do taxes, be a responsible member of
   the community, build social skills, know first aid and establish healthy
   eating habits, and all about how credit and debit works.

   In other words, schools need to teach youth the things they are going to
   need to know about living in modern society and doing well. So many 
things
   you learn in school today seem pointless when you get out and never use 
it.
   You also find yourself hurting in other areas when you are expected to 
know
   how to do something in life but nobody ever taught you.

   Thanks for your email.

   Best,

   _DJA

   Jerry Weitz wrote:
   Raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 will not help in real
   inflation-adjusted buying power--it is too small of an increase. So let’s
   discuss the fundamentals. As Virginia’s  former Democratic governor Mark
   Warner’s track record illustrates, skills training in our high schools
   would help increase wages for Idaho’s  workforce and encourage more jobs.
   With the push for community colleges in the urban areas of Idaho, I 
believe
   that our local high schools could become the rural equivalent of 
community
   college. This would cost money and would require a willingness to change
   the current high school structure.

   The state legislature’s current focus on shifting school funding from
   property taxes to the sales tax (the current maintenance and operations
   debate) misses the point. Instead of focusing on ways to shift funds, I
   would urge consideration for increased funding for the 
creation/maintenance
   of skills centers in local high schools. Rather than seeking a balanced
   taxation approach, the Idaho Education Association has promoted a tax 
shift
   to the sales tax, which sends a confusing message.

   When one examines France,  with a high minimum wage, a large
   under-skilled/inexperienced segment of its youth, guaranteed employment
   contracts, unbending unionization, top down regulations, etc., one 
observes
   high unemployment, a high cost of living, and extreme social unrest.

   What works: 1) create/maintain superior education for both the
   college-bound and the non-college-bound, 2) invest in infrastructure, 3) 
be
   friendly to business, 4) be environmentally wise, and 5) do this without
   going deeply into debt, which requires prioritization. Ireland has
   followed the above policies with exceptional success. We should follow 
the
   lead of former governor Warner and Virginia’s  Republican legislature and
   make these policies non-partisan. From what I’ve learned, Larry Grant,  
our
   district’s Democratic candidate for Congress, seems to understand this
   non-partisan, middle of the road approach.

   Jerry



   At 11:11 AM 8/7/06, Shirley Ringo wrote:
   Visionaries:


   I cannot resist the urge to weigh in on the minimum wage issue. I
   proposed legislation during the most recent legislative session to raise
   the minimum wage to $6.15. It received very little support from
   Republicans. (Our District 6 Republicans did support it, and
   Representative Trail will co-sponsor the effort with us again next year.)

   "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

   We plan to try again next year, at an amount above $6.15.



   Without getting into the usual arguments, it’s unacceptable to have a
   minimum wage that leaves those paid at that level in cruel poverty.
   Lawmakers have neglected maintenance on minimum wage levels. In 1968, the
   minimum wage meant something positive to families. In inflation-adjusted
   dollars, it has lost nearly 40% of its value between 1968 and now.



   According to polling, the vast majority of Americans believe the minimum
   wage should be higher. I believe eighteen states have a minimum wage
   higher than the $5.15 federal level, which has not been raised since 
1997.
   Some of these states have used the initiative process to get results, 
where
   state legislators would not act on it. In some of these states, there has
   been significant help from Republican leaders.



   Many claims of negative consequences do not seem to be true. One of the
   claims is that jobs will be lost. In the majority of states that have
   raised the minimum wage, there has in fact been an increase in jobs. (We
   can’t claim the wage increase caused more jobs, but the decrease some
   predicted didn’t happen.) An increase in employee productivity and less
   absenteeism was reported where the pay level increased.



   On the inflation issue, "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"  
/>Florida  reported after
   raising their minimum wage a very minor increase in some prices. Since a
   relatively small percent of the employed receive minimum wage, one might
   not expect a dramatic increase in prices. (We can expect a “ripple  
effect”
   though, where employers will raise wages to be more competitive.) One 
year
   ago in Idaho,  according to the Department of Commerce and Labor, 32,000
   Idahoans received a wage between $5.15 and $6.15 per hour. While Idaho
   State Government employee pay is entirely too low, almost none of them
   receive pay as low as $5.15 per hour. I don’t consider it an undisputed
   fact that there will be significant inflation, but we can certainly study
   the issue in the states that have raised the minimum wage.



   Workers who receive minimum wage live from paycheck to paycheck. (If
   they can make it stretch.) They have no discretionary money. What are
   they to do when their taxes go up? Just more water in the gravy, I guess.
   At the minimum wage, it takes more than one full day to earn the money to
   buy fifteen gallons of gasoline.



   While I continue to study the issue, I am convinced that some of the
   negative consequences of raising the minimum wage are over-stated. I am
   also steadfast in my belief that it is unacceptable to value people and
   families so little that we allow such a low level of compensation for 
their
   efforts and to address their needs.



   Shirley




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