For Community Colleges, A Key Role
Spokane County has 1,200 lawyers, 710 physicians and a dozen editorial writers. That’s probably enough.
There remains a demand - seriously, now - for skilled laborers. Machinists, for example.
Contrary to the thrust of our school system, not everyone needs to aim for the sometimes dubious benefits of a university education (see the Maureen Dowd column at right).
It’s possible to find a good career, and make a family wage, without ever setting foot on some $20,000-a-year campus.
At community colleges - the underfunded stepchildren of our higher education system - students can polish the academic skills everybody needs and in just two years acquire the know-how to enter a solid vocation.
Fact is, there’s demand for people smart enough to shun Greek Row. Experts say Spokane’s economy is hampered by a lack of trained machinists. The opportunities are with desirable employers, such as Hewlett-Packard and Johnson Matthey. Yet this fall, only 18 enrolled in a Spokane Community College machine shop class with room for 22.
Something’s wrong when high schools measure prowess by the number of college-bound merit scholars, when politicians struggle to get people off welfare, when graduates with English degrees wait tables, and $15-an-hour manufacturing careers go unclaimed.
Machinist is far from the only solid vocation available for the modest price of a community college education. Think about it: Our economy would be helpless without mechanics, plumbers, computer technicians, chefs … In between the South Hill’s doctor and lawyer homes live entrepreneurs who started out with a trade and built it into a business.
Wise educators realize the traditional, college-prep K-12 curriculum leaves some students uninspired. They argue for an alternative - a “tech prep” track preparing young people for vocations. Critics may object that vocational tracking stratifies students; but so do unemployment and the dropout rate.
It’s tough enough for teens to choose careers. Yet choices must be made, and if students are going to make them wisely, the schools, a community’s employers and the politicians who allocate the educational dollar have to promote all of the options.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board