Our View: Professional-technical school is good for region

The education profile of the country just won’t sit still.

Remember when non-college-bound teens could emerge from high school and find a family-wage job in a local industry? Those days are gone. But the notion that a four-year college degree should be a universal aspiration has run its course, too – and a costly course at that.

In the last half century, according to the Idaho Division of Professional-Technical Education, the percentage of occupations that require some technical training, but not a four-year degree, has more than tripled. That description applies to two-thirds of careers today, says the agency’s 2008-12 strategic plan. In many communities, the economy has trouble sustaining important businesses because they can’t find workers with the skills necessary to fill good, critical jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.

That concern explains the significance of an agreement signed last week in North Idaho among a group of education and business interests and a private landowner on the Rathdrum Prairie. In time, the pact will result in a professional-technical school operated by a partnership of three K-12 education districts – Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland.

Alongside that facility will be a North Idaho College campus that allows for what NIC officials describe as a seamless movement by high school students into college programs geared toward teaching advanced workplace skills.

The high school program has evolved from about three years of work by local manufacturers who weren’t shy in showing their displeasure over what they considered NIC’s lack of commitment to this kind of instruction. Two years ago, the businesses penned a letter of no confidence in then-President Michael Burke, who since has been replaced by Priscilla Bell.

After settling on the K-12 system as the best contact point for professional-technical training, the industry representatives assembled a community group, that included education and business leaders. They visited Southern Idaho for a close-up look at the Canyon-Owyhee Support Service Area, a multidistrict program that has produced high rates for graduation and job placement among students often considered at risk.

Coeur d’Alene manufacturer Ron Nilson, who’s spearheaded the business group, wants the Rathdrum Prairie venture to match those results, to the benefit of both students and businesses. Developing a solid skill base won’t prevent youngsters from expanding on it with a college education if they’re so inclined, he notes.

Meanwhile, he considers the planned professional-technical campus “the most exciting thing that’s ever happened for the future of Kootenai County.”

That’s high praise, but if the plans materialize as described and begin producing the machinists, mechanics, welders and others needed to sustain existing businesses and attract new ones, Nilson’s enthusiasm will be justified.