[Vision2020] Fwd: Reality of Poverty in Idaho

keely emerinemix kjajmix1 at msn.com
Sat Nov 25 11:07:47 PST 2006


I'm still planning to be there, Bruce, and I appreciate the MCA's interest 
in this.

keely


From: "Bruce and Jean Livingston" <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd:  Reality of Poverty in Idaho
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:56:03 -0800

Some of the ideas Jerry expresses here are going to be the topic of an MCA 
forum on Monday night, Nov. 27 at 7 pm, at the 1912 Building on Third 
Street.  The topic is how to improve professional technical education in 
Moscow.

Dr. Weitz has been a prolific commentator on local education issues.  Many 
other important opinion leaders from a variety of education, business, 
legislative and community perspectives will be joining Jerry at the MCA 
forum on Monday evening.  Our goal is to work toward understanding current 
educational offerings and ways to improve them, either within the current 
financial constraints or by creatively finding new ways to avoid or 
eliminate some of those constraints through public and private partnerships. 
  We hope to see many of you there to discuss this important community 
issue.

The list of local leaders scheduled to attend includes Representative Tom 
Trail, Representative Shirley Ringo, Dr. Jerry Weitz, Marsha Royer 
(Schweitzer vice president of human resources), Barry Ramsay (owner of D8 in 
Potlatch), Jeff Martin (CEO, Gritman Medical Center), Ken Medlin, Shirley 
Greene (chair of Rotary Club's vocational education committee), Dean Paul 
Rowland (UI College of Education), Dean Steve Daley-Laursen (UI College of 
Natural Resources), Dean Rob Lohrmeyer (Lewis-Clark State College 
Professional Technical Programs), Cindy Bechinski (Moscow School District 
curriculum director),  Bob Celebrezze (principal of Moscow High School), 
Carole Jones (principal of Moscow's alternative high school), and other 
administrators, teachers and school board members from Moscow School 
District.

These community leaders and others in attendance will participate in an 
in-depth discussion that seeks innovative solutions to the quandary of 
improving educational offerings within or by lessening current budgetary 
constraints.  The community discussion follows an initial presentation by 
three panelists, Mike Rush, the Idaho State Director of Professional 
Technical Education, Paul Kimmell, Executive Director of the Moscow Chamber 
of Commerce, and Jim Gregson, Chair of the University of Idaho Dept. of 
Adult, Career and Technology Education.

Here is an article previewing the forum from the Friday edition of the 
Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

   Panel To Explore Tech Ed Options

   By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer
   Friday, November 24, 2006 - Page Updated at 11:53:58 AM

   Debby LeBlanc remembers a time when Moscow High School had more 
professional
   technical classes available through its marketing department as well as 
its
   agriculture department.

   The business teacher said those programs were cut years ago, and the 
state's
   newest changes to the education system now have her worried that her
   business program might go someday too.

   "It's really nobody's fault," she said. "We're being forced into a road 
with
   all academia."

   The recent changes in high school graduation requirements increase the
   number of required math and science courses. When overall course
   requirements increase, the number of student-chosen electives decrease.

   Along with those changes, the students' opportunities for electives are
   limited by the need to take extra classes for remediation in order to 
pass
   the ISAT, or the Idaho Standards Achievement Test.

   LeBlanc said people are trying to stop the loss of professional-technical
   classes, but she doesn't know if that is possible.

   She said she is going to attend a forum on Monday about
   professional-technical education to find out more.

   The Moscow Civic Association is hosting the event, "Education for a Flat
   World: Creating Opportunities for Moscow Students and Business." It will
   bring three panelists to talk about the issues that face professional
   technical education programs in agriculture, mechanics and shop, business
   and accounting, and computer applications, among others.

   "If people have an interest in making learning more relevant, interesting
   and engaging to youth, I would encourage them to attend," said Jim 
Gregson,
   a panelist and the chairman of the Department of Adult, Career and
   Technology Education at the University of Idaho.

   Gregson agreed with LeBlanc that school districts have had to make very
   difficult decisions as resources have become increasingly scarce.

   He suggested that the area universities, businesses and the schools could
   merge their resources.

   Internships and job shadows are just a few ways to provide students the
   hands-on experience and applied learning that are the hallmarks of
   professional technical education, he said.

   Gregson said he hopes to find out the level of support across the 
community
   for reviving and modernizing these programs. He also is interested to 
find
   "in a pragmatic sense - how we can make one or more of these efforts
    happen."

   Panelist and Moscow Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Paul Kimmell 
said
   attendees of the event will be able to participate in the discussions.

   "What we're hoping to do is flush out some possible actions in the 
future,"
   he said.

   Kimmell said the Moscow School District is open to introducing new
   programming but it remains "very constrained financially and
   curriculum-wise."

   "They are challenged to make any room in their existing school schedule," 
he
   said.

   The system is doing a good job now, Kimmell said, but that doesn't mean
   there can't be more improvements.

   "We've got all the right people here," he said. "It's not going to happen
   over night, that's why we have got to keep raising the issue and raising 
the
   awareness."

   INFO BOX

   The Moscow Civic Association's Forum on Professional Technical Education

   * WHAT: A three-person panel will discuss enhancing professional 
technical
   education in the area. The panel members are Mike Rush, Idaho state 
director
   of professional technical education; Jim Gregson, chairman of the 
University
   of Idaho's Department of Adult, Career and Technology Education; and Paul
   Kimmell, executive director of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.

   * WHEN: 7 p.m., Monday

   * WHERE: 1912 Center, Moscow


   Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, and by e-mail at
   kbaldwin at dnews.com.

Bruce Livingston
MCA President
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Jerry Weitz
   To: vision2020 at moscow.com
   Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 11:45 PM
   Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: Reality of Poverty in Idaho


    At 11:29 PM 11/24/06, Gerald Weitz wrote:


   Skills (Learning by doing) education:  A thumbnail perspective

   Changing American secondary education around the needs of the students in 
the present and the future requires honesty, courage, and a willingness to 
accept that the status quo is not working optimally.  Real change, made for 
the right reasons and toward the right mission, will yield dramatically 
better results and a bright future for all our young people, for our 
national economy, and our cultural well being.

   In a recent speech Bill Gates made a provocative case about American high 
schools. "American high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I mean that our 
high schools, even when they are working exactly as designed, cannot teach 
our kids what they need to know today.  Training the workforce of tomorrow 
with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's 
computers on a 50-year-old mainframe.  It's the wrong tool for the times."

    WSU's President Rawlins, in his recent State of the University speech, 
detailed the effects for the University in having to remediate math and 
communication skills that should have been accomplished by k-12.   Too many 
Colleges and Universities  grapple with the same dilemma.

   Many students are currently disengaged and leaving, or have already left 
the traditional high school.  Idaho's graduation rate is 84% and MSD's, as 
reported, is 86%.  Many go to college only to drop out.  UI is focusing on 
retention as the University has had an almost 1100 student enrollment 
decline in the past two years.

   Educational reform has been an enduring topic since the beginning of the 
republic. At the start of   the twentieth century our system was the best in 
the world and had the longest school year based on the 180-day agricultural 
model.  We are a country that believes in positive and forward change. 
Everyone gets a chance and the tools to succeed.

   By mid century, with a strong influx of skilled labor from Europe, 
America was at the top.  In 1950, America represented 75% of the world's 
economic pie.  30% of our workforce in 1950 could join the middle class by 
working at a factory. Yet, danger loomed with the Soviets going nuclear, the 
fall of China to the communists, Europe requiring the Marshall Plan to avoid 
collapse, and the Korean War.  To beat the communists, America (starting 
with President Truman) invested in our colleges and universities at an 
unprecedented level.  America transferred its research, technology, and 
systems freely to the non-communist world.  The GI bill, instituted in 1944, 
and the tremendous growth of public colleges/universities served America 
well. Focus was not on k-12.  Thus other nations observed our k-12 system 
and vastly improved their own with higher expectations and standards.

   Today, our research universities are unreservedly the best in the world. 
In a recent Economist feature reviewing the importance of education as a 
driver of prosperity, the American community college was ruled as a 
distinctly American world-class innovation.  America's economy is the most 
successful in the world, even with Katrina, the challenge of Iraq, and the 
national debt.   We are dynamic, creative, entrepreneurial, flexible, and 
innovative. In every field, U.S. firms are at or near the frontier of 
technological advance.  Unfortunately, our high schools are not the world's 
best.

   Despite 25 years of strong competition from Asia and Europe, our giant 
economy has remained resurgent.  U.S. unemployment is one of the lowest in 
the world.  The advantages of this onrush of technology are obvious.  But 
there are major social costs as well.  What is called a two-tiered labor 
market has evolved in which those at the bottom lack enough skills and 
education to compete, failing to get pay raises, health coverage and other 
benefits.  In the lower and middle-income quintiles stagnation or declines 
in incomes have become the norm.  The days of checking into the local 
factory and entering the middle class is in steep decline.  For example, GM 
and the UAW have recently agreed to start workers at $12/hour with 
diminished health benefits. Further, downward adjustments may still be 
required according to both GM and the UAW.  Non-skilled labor is not the 
future.  Adjustments in the minimum wage, while meritorious and fair, may be 
helpful for some, however, in many cases worsen the hiring levels of the 
non-skilled/inexperienced. (An unintended opposite effect).

   There has been a strong k-12 movement to catch up to our international 
peers in science, math and communication skills.  Standards and testing have 
been instituted.  Spending levels on education in the US are among the 
highest in the advanced economies.  Public sentiment in Idaho is not on the 
side of just adding more money into the system as evidenced by the defeat of 
prop. 1.  (Although Latah County bucked the trend).

   Many commentators assert that Globalization will transform the world 
economy in the 21st century, leaving no national products, no national 
corporations, no national industries and no national economies.  To succeed 
in the global marketplace, countries will have to depend entirely on the 
skills of their inhabitants, and will have to deal with powerful external 
forces that could create an ever widening gulf between skilled, globally 
aware citizens and a growing unskilled out-of touch underclass.  The slogan 
"think globally, act locally" may prove to be the correct framework for our 
k-12's prosperity and our rural region's future.

   Learning by doing (skills) is not a new concept. During the Dark Ages the 
city states (Genoa, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Milan) of Italy forwarded 
education and skills.  Italy became very prosperous.  For example, 
eyeglasses became a defining industry for Venice during the dark ages.  Even 
today, the best eyeglass frames come from Italy. From Dark Age Italy, 
western philosophy of individual betterment through education and skills 
formed the basis of democratic capitalism, individual rights, higher 
education, trade, and property rights.

   Resistance to change is not new.  For example, Isaac Newton pushed 
against the establishment by forwarding the concept that math ought to be 
taught to orphans. John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, was 
literally discredited and run out of California for forwarding the idea that 
we're entering the computer age and non-traditional educational models must 
be employed for non-traditional students.

   Recommendations:

   1)      Increase the number of days (not necessarily hours/day) 
instruction. Our major
   trading partners average 211 days.  MSD is about 170days.  Canada has a 
200-day school year and consistently is in the top 4 in science, math and 
communication skills far outpacing U.S. counterparts.  Thus the obstacle of 
not having enough time can be overcome.

   2)      Increase teacher training outside of instructional days (UI could 
be pivotal).  Thus having a qualified staff is obtainable.

   3)      Institute skills curriculum for the non-college bound (Recall 
Virginia under former Mark Warner offered 50 certifications in 50 trades at 
Virginia's community colleges for the non-college bound. Virginia's 
graduation rate = 94.6%.  Idaho, by its size and population, must co-use 
local high schools as community colleges.  Ely Nevada High School serves as 
a high school/community college. Recall that community colleges evolved from 
local Boards of Education. The demand for workers with postsecondary degrees 
and certifications has outpaced the supply.  Jobs that require an 
associate's degree are growing the fastest and those requiring professional 
doctorates and Ph.D.'s are the second fastest.

   4)      Study the Finnish model:  Finland, with 5.3 million, has one of 
the best-educated workforces in the world.  In a land of snow and ice, 1/3rd 
of its landmass in the artic, 60,000 major lakes and zillions of B-52 sized 
mosquitoes, Finland has a remarkable economy. (from cell phones to high end  
medical/dental equipment.)
   Finland consistently scores in the top 3 internationally in science and 
math.
   Ireland has one of the most educated workforces and it has an impressive 
high tech economy.  New Zealand has rebound from a low performer to a high 
performer in science and math.

   5)      Establish a system where every student should be led through a 
process of academic and career awareness exploration, and planning. Make 
sure our system re-engages/reconnects students that are about to drop out or 
have. Extending the school year would help.

   6)      Be resurgent as the US economy.  Present a definitive plan to the 
patronage, build alliances with the UI, private schools, and the business 
community, then run a supplemental levy.  Prop one was too broad and 
non-specific.  The public is not at all convinced that adding money is the 
sole answer.  Make our system the best and accept no less.  Think Globally, 
Act Locally.


   Gerald Weitz, D.D.S.




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