The title question is timely; the subtitle question is completely off base.
First, it's a solid piece, well researched, no doubt taking a good bit of work. Yet the framing of this topic by all the 'experts' is so off base as to make it nearly impossible to research from a distal position.
Let's start with "rests on a bold promise: a renaissance of high-tech factories staffed by skilled tradespeople. ... Does America’s education system have what it takes to produce the workforce needed...?"
We're getting the cart before the horse.
Just who is going to design and build these factories?
All the experts at #EnglishMajoring that our high schools and colleges have been pushing out these past decades?
Engineering is not a loved occupation in this country. Even less so among our Black brethren. Black teens choose engineering at barely a third the rate of others; for the tougher engineering choices, it's far less.
Nor is our system of training engineers ready to help even those who do enter it. While it is changing, the emphasis on math is above where it needs be; looking more like the needs of 1980 than of today.
Factories must also choose their products carefully. This is a special form of business acumen. Majoring in "Marketing" at the local off-flagship state U probably will not get you the skills needed to make good decisions about what to produce here.
I wish I had time to write more.
My area here in Appalachia actually exceeds the US average in manufacturing jobs. But they're not high tech. And their owners not always eager to expand.
High schools should have begun fundamentally adapting to this new reality a decade and a half ago. They could have; we knew how.
The "ed reform" complex wanted no part of it then. Will they now?
An appropriately downbeat assessment of CTE. An analysis of WBL would look even worse (especially one that was grounded in the experience of companies, not school districts and the outputs of "convenings."
It is sad testimony to the power of America's teachers unions and their supporters that, even in the face of the national security threats we face, too many of our national political "leaders" on both sides of the aisle are afraid to confront head on the obstacles to improved K-12 results, and the dangerous consequences to the nation if cowardice triumphs over courage.
With all that the Trump administration is doing, a simple focus on rebuilding America's manufacturing base is willfully blind. Dictatorships might seem attractive to some, but the problem is that we all carry individual biases and delusions. Some of us realize this and act accordingly, but when an individual seizes power and has no checks, we are all captive to their delusional thinking. That is what is happening here.
The title question is timely; the subtitle question is completely off base.
First, it's a solid piece, well researched, no doubt taking a good bit of work. Yet the framing of this topic by all the 'experts' is so off base as to make it nearly impossible to research from a distal position.
Let's start with "rests on a bold promise: a renaissance of high-tech factories staffed by skilled tradespeople. ... Does America’s education system have what it takes to produce the workforce needed...?"
We're getting the cart before the horse.
Just who is going to design and build these factories?
All the experts at #EnglishMajoring that our high schools and colleges have been pushing out these past decades?
Engineering is not a loved occupation in this country. Even less so among our Black brethren. Black teens choose engineering at barely a third the rate of others; for the tougher engineering choices, it's far less.
Nor is our system of training engineers ready to help even those who do enter it. While it is changing, the emphasis on math is above where it needs be; looking more like the needs of 1980 than of today.
Factories must also choose their products carefully. This is a special form of business acumen. Majoring in "Marketing" at the local off-flagship state U probably will not get you the skills needed to make good decisions about what to produce here.
I wish I had time to write more.
My area here in Appalachia actually exceeds the US average in manufacturing jobs. But they're not high tech. And their owners not always eager to expand.
High schools should have begun fundamentally adapting to this new reality a decade and a half ago. They could have; we knew how.
The "ed reform" complex wanted no part of it then. Will they now?
An appropriately downbeat assessment of CTE. An analysis of WBL would look even worse (especially one that was grounded in the experience of companies, not school districts and the outputs of "convenings."
Based on my conversations, you understate the threat to the National Defense Industrial Base, and thus to our national security, if we cannot substantially, not just at the margins, improve K-12 and CTE performance. As you can see here (https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2024-03/240306_Jones_Rebuilding_Democracy_0.pdf?VersionId=KkuViuhUaxBPHB0nc_FtQ.qufXNOgxUj) and here (https://www.cfr.org/blog/six-takeaways-pentagons-report-chinas-military), China has rapidly improved the competence and capacity of its Defense Industrial Base, which is now driving rapid improvement in in the size and lethality of its armed forces.
It is sad testimony to the power of America's teachers unions and their supporters that, even in the face of the national security threats we face, too many of our national political "leaders" on both sides of the aisle are afraid to confront head on the obstacles to improved K-12 results, and the dangerous consequences to the nation if cowardice triumphs over courage.
With all that the Trump administration is doing, a simple focus on rebuilding America's manufacturing base is willfully blind. Dictatorships might seem attractive to some, but the problem is that we all carry individual biases and delusions. Some of us realize this and act accordingly, but when an individual seizes power and has no checks, we are all captive to their delusional thinking. That is what is happening here.