Dayton, Ohio, Lowers Police Testing Standards Because Not Enough Blacks Passed...
Question: why lower the standard rather than institute an educational solution to the problem ?
Answer: because it is easy and cheap. Understand that such a strategy (lowering police testing standards) leaves the black community as much the victim of state directed education as before making the testing allowances. In other words, the problem is not solved.
The issue, here, is not the unqualified black community seeking jobs, nor the police department attempting to solve a problem, but the state school system that created the problem in the first place.
The taxpayer financed state educational system should be about the kind of education that qualifies its graduates, at whatever level, to become productive members of society. In this case, the specific failure is found in a system that continues to experiment with our children while ignoring its over-all failure to equip them for adult life without college. Only 15 to 20 percent of incoming high school freshmen class actually graduate from college with a four year degree -- and I believe this is a high estimate. What about the 85% who do not graduate? Should there not be a comprehensive vocational system in place to deal with this population?
I think so. The sad truth of the matter is this: we are decades behind in this regard. Obama's goal of half our high school youth attending college an idiot's dream. It will not happen. We do not have a collegiate system that can handle such an increased population. There is not enough money to pay for such increases. And there is not the interest within the general population.
More than any of these considerations, Obama's plans for an increased college graduation rate ignores the larger problem, that of a unschooled population that is many times larger than the collegiate crowd will ever be, and growing.
And, yet, we - as a nation -- continue to ignore this problem, and the folks in Dayton, Ohio, are having to deal with this issue as best they can.
Think about it: which segment of the population has driven the economy since the beginnings of our history as a nation? Answer: the blue collar worker; the "uneducated" but trained industrial laborer . . . . in other words, the vocationally trained workforce.
Our economy is based on this demographic. Farming, industry, construction and housing with its associated trades have been the life blood of this country --- and they still are. Take it away or allow for this collective demographic to disappear and you will have a nation that will never see the kind of prosperity experienced in the recent past.
Why do college grads make more money than non-graduates? The answer may surprise you: because college graduation puts one in a relatively small workforce cluster. I am saying that it is not the education, per se, that makes for higher wages. Rather, think "supply and demand." How many of our graduates are actually working in the venue mirrored on their collegiate diploma? Well, I do not know the answer to that question, but I do know that the number has to be substantial. My oldest son graduated from law school 14 years ago. He owed $160,000 at the time of his graduation. His first job offers came in at around $30,000 per year !! Why so low? Because novice lawyers are a "dime a dozen." Several of his friends had to go into other occupations, making their time at law school irrelevant. Of course, as time has advanced, his worth has increased, but that is because his experience has put him in a "smaller workforce cluster." Can you imagine the disaster if the lawyer population tripled? Can we graduate more doctors than can used in three lifetimes? What if there were suddenly 5 million more young scientists or teachers or social workes? The inescapable law of "supply and demand" would drive the wages of these occupations down and the four year degree would soon become commonplace -- like the high school diploma is today.
I am a retired building contractor. I did not care if the new hire was a graduate of anything. I only cared if he could read a tape measure, remember what he learned on the job, and showed up for work each and every day.
No president to date understands the problem as described in this post. So, it is not just Obama's fault. But, Obama is the current ruler and it is his educational goals that are being put into play and it is his failure in this regard that counts.
What needs to happen? The private sector needs to develop a comprehensive vocational system and the government needs to stay out of the way.
Note: for the sake of our blog's search engine, I file this under "what if I were president."
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