In a recent article in the Houston Chrinicle, we read that business is mighty disappointed in the schools. They say they aren’t getting the trained employees they need. They think the schools are too easy. Some want more money spent in the schools that do well, as a reward.
No one seems to care that the Legislature slashed $5.3 Billion from the schools in 2011 and–despite a good economy–never restored it.
Here’s a challenge for those Texas businessmen who claim they can’t find workers because of the schools. Visit your local school. Spend a few days there. Ask them about their needs. Take the high school math test. Publish your scores.
If public schools are “failing,” find out who cut the budget and insist that it be restored as soon as possible. Nobody gets healthier on a starvation diet.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I enjoy reading your articles, but this one assumes that more money is the answer and that is not necessarily true.
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Spot on. We passed Prop 30 in Calif. which was supposed to be for education, but that money went to pensions.
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When one sees allocating more money to cure an underperforming process, it is important to consider that the US spends double the amount spent in other industrialized countries on public education.
Rather than simplistically pouring more money into our outmoded top-down teach to the test processes, it might make sense to examine what is effective in those organizations that are effectively developing students that are fully prepared for regular college courses and for entry into skilled trade programs, particularly in poverty populations.
The State of Texas recently paid Pearson over half a billion dollars for testing services.
I submit that that massive expenditure will do little to improve the effectiveness of our student development for the needs of the 21st Century.
We need to return the emphasis on the classroom teacher, who is the only person who has awareness of the unique challenges, abilities and interests of the students.
The very best organizations put their emphasis on the teachers. The administrators get out of their way other than to insure that they have the support and resources needed to assure success of their students.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Ah, the “skills gap” returns! The CEO’s favorite economic theory.
Just so you know, this is just one theory of why wages are declining or stagnant. The Obama Administration has signed on 100% to this theory, but there’s no real reason they should have done so outside the natural inclination of public sector leaders and private sector leaders to want to dodge accountability for income inequality. The “skills gap” lets them do that.
When in doubt, blame public schools, and if that doesn’t work, blame working and middle class people! Who would have guessed that income inequality was the fault of workers themselves?
It’s the best theory ever, because it lets powerful people completely off the hook. Also, the private sector willl get lots and lots of taxpayer funding for training their employees. That way they don’t have to invest in training themselves.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/08/19/Why-Employers-Are-Blame-Skills-Gap
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We in Texas are at an enormous disadvantage, as the side effect of NCLB is the teach to the test reaction of the high stakes standardized testing implemented in our public schools.
Teachers bemoan not being able to focus on teaching their students as they are forced to work on the rote memorization of the arcane testing that dominates our public schools.
As a result, we have students who are unable to function in organizations other than those of a hierarchical nature, or a top-down management style, in which the employees are told what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
Wealth is created by innovation.
Hierarchical organizations rarely inspire innovation, so foreign companies are gaining dominance in industries one lead by US companies, such as steel, autos, consumer electronics,
If you are willing to accept that college graduates of US colleges should not be able to find more demanding positions than that of folding clothes in a mall store, then you probably do not comprehend the magnitude of this enormous challenge to our way of life.
If you would care to examine perhaps the single best analysis of this waste of human capital resources, please refer to the 1998 white paper by the Hudson Institute Director of Research Edwin S. Rubinstein “The College Payoff Illusion” which describes the difference between being degreed and being functionally literate.
http://web1.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/college.htm
Organizations that require the highest level of perception by their people are forced frequently to either export jobs or to import talent.
That does not bode well for our future.
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If I may add to your thought, dormand: “Organizations, BECAUSE THEY ARE UNWILLING TO PAY ADEQUATELY FOR TOP NOTCH HELP AND that require the highest level of perception by their people are forced frequently to either export jobs or to import talent SO AS TO NOT TO HAVE TOO PAY A LIVEABLE COMPENSATION.”
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Mr. Swacker-
You might want to consider researching the facts before going on record as to the unwillingness to adequately pay for highly effective talent.
I suggest even in Manhattan the wages found in the Wall Street Journal in its piece on the dire shortage of data scientists should cover a basic standard of living:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/academic-researchers-find-lucrative-work-as-big-data-scientists-1407543088
6,000 firms recruiting
24,000 to 36,000 positions open
$200K to $300K per year for PhDs with two years experience
anyone with “data scientist” in job title in Linked In is said to get 100 emails per day from headhunters
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How about on the job training? Businesses should provide this for their new employees!
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That i what they used to do. Now the schools are supposed to add job training to the list of obligations fostered upon them. It saves the companies the money they would have to invest in training.
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Here’s a crazy economic theory we won’t hear coming from out of DC. If you can’t find enough skilled workers, that might be an indication you should raise wages. That would be a market-based solution. Why do we never hear that theory from the “thought leaders”?
The other option would be to do something very “traditionalist” and old-fashioned. You could pay to train your own workers! That’s how we used to do it, back in the day. Worked out pretty well.
Is there some reason the public should be paying to train people for specific tasks and specific industries, other than that business doesn’t want to pay to train their own workers anymore?
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I’m sorry, Chiara, but you are going to have to be arrested for making sense. The SWAT team should be breaking down your door any minute now. Do not attempt to flee or resist.
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They’re publicly-funding a job training program in Cleveland that offers an 8 week certificate in CNC machining and a wage of 10 dollars an hour on completion.
Entry-level, unskilled manufacturing jobs pay 10 dollars an hour, now. Entry level CNC make more, now.
They’re federally funding a program that will drive down wages.
They’re going to replace people who make more than 10 dollars an hour with people who make 10 dollars an hour, and the people they’re putting out of work are paying for the training for their low wage replacements.
You want to bash your head against the wall.
Are they DELIBERATELY trying to harm working people? What did we ever do to deserve this shoddy treatment from our lawmakers? 🙂
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Sheesh. When are American companies going to stop the whining already and start contributing to the training and education they require of employees. Here’s a clue from Germany: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/educate-americans-jobs-ask-germans-employers-urge/
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Business has been cutting in house training and pushing that cost on schools. Business has been undermining teachers and interfering in the classroom for the past 30 years. Business (like the home of the whopper) is dodging taxes shifting the burden of maintaining society on stressed families while still enjoying the benefits. Business is seeing increased global competition and rather than invest in infrastructure and workers, they ship jobs overseas or import H1bs. Business is flush with cash and, instead of creating wealth, simply shift around wealth to a small number of people. Business should look in the mirror – they have no one to whine to but themselves.
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Texas Senate Education Committee had hearings yesterday.
Here is a short article worth your time. Hopefully a good sign of tides starting to turn on high stakes or at least an evaluation of the emphasis on testing.
Below are quotes from committee members, however both are currently running for lieutenant governor. I am hoping this is more than a political stunt.
“Our STAAR exam, our current accountability system, doesn’t give us what we need,” said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D). “It doesn’t move the needle.”
Sen. Dan Patrick (R) said, “I think we have a ways to go and we need to continue to pursue what is the best interest of our students.”
http://kxan.com/2014/08/26/senate-education-committee-takes-closer-look-at-staar-testing/
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I suggest that these might qualify as the understatements of the year.
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Business and the government want us to believe there is a shortage of STEM employees which according to Steven Krashen, is a myth. The reason they are creating the shortage narrative is so that they can import cheap tech. labor from Asia while trained Americans go jobless. The President is also in secret negotiations with other countries to import cheap tech. labor as part of the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement. It’s the NAFTA of tomorrow where we lose, and they gain. For more you can search, the April 6, 2013 post at “Schools Matter.”
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You might check the factual information at:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/academic-researchers-find-lucrative-work-as-big-data-scientists-1407543088
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We saw your link the first time you posted it. Citing one article from a corporate-based media source doesn’t make a convincing argument.
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So true, retired teacher. The H1b program is an indentured servant program. H1bs do not complain, work cheap, and owe their work status to their employer. Why hire Americans, particularly those over 40 or with families? The apartments around us are full of H1bs employed across the street at a major corporation. It is reminiscent of the old company shanty towns.
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The Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce have taken money from Gates to promoto common core. Isn’t it interesting that these Texas Business leaders use the same exact language and talking points that the Business leaders in my state (RI) use in Similar Op Ed peices that have run in our local paper. It’s as if they are all reading from the same script and following the same PR program.
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We’re hiring right now. The job requires basic office skills and a high school diploma. We’ve gotten 40 applicants in the first 3 days of putting the offer up, and all but one of the applicants have either an associates degree or a bachelors degree.
Ohio must have a really unusual economy or workforce, since this (alleged) “skills gap” is parroted by everyone in the world. I wonder if it’s based on anything? I guess we’ll never know! It’s unknowable. We’ll just have to trust these CEOs.
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With respect to the Cleveland CNC training program, one would have to be curious as to the degree of competence that could be developed in eight weeks, except for individuals already highly competent in positions with readily transferable skill sets.
If the jobs only pay $10 per hour, expect many to give notice shortly after they learn where both the coffee pot and the applicable rest rooms are located, assuming that this eight week program actually produces graduates with usable levels of skills.
For many, that pay level is not going to cover child care costs plus the gas to get to work.
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Jen B.
“The Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce have taken money to promote the CCSS. This is just one of many examples of buying the policy you want by having paying others to be the public face of the policy.
The Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce probably do have the same script. this is one technique of staying on message. The PR industry is thriving on the spin money from politics and from foundations.
For an example in education go the website of Education First and look at the credentials of the founding partner (used to work for Gates). Education First proudly claims credit for promoting the CCSS in multiple states, and getting grant applications for RttT is shape for approval. They do everything from white papers, to op eds, to comprehensive “messaging systems” for whomever will pay the bill.
You and I paid them $6.3 million to push the RttT pay-for-performance agenda. This outfit was one of 9 subcontractors who got a piece of the $43 million pie from a grant awarded to IFC international for “technical assistance” to states and districts who won or applied for the RttT competitions. The policies are so bad at USDE that they have to rely on PR companies to promote them. You’ll find a lot more of this in Diane’s books and Mercedes Schnieder’s encyclopedic Chronicle of Echoes.
It is always useful for enquiring minds to follow the money
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That businesses are saying they can’t fill spots b/c kids aren’t skilled enough is just a sound bite that the reformers like to bandy around. No surprise this is coming from Jeb Bush’s territory, where charters are king, up is down, black is white, and the kids have not been properly served for years under Jeb’s policies. All I can think when I think of Texas these days is please, God, lets not have another Bush in the white house.
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Let’s not forget that half of our engineering graduates are not employed. Many of those that are employed are in positions that do not require their stem training. The shortage is made up and manipulated to allow the import of cheap labor. The shortage is of qualified people willing to work for WalMart wages.
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It would be most helpful to see information on that population that is said to have 50% unemployment.
Cobol engineers who have not updated their skill sets to those currently in demand should not be surprised to see a void in help wanted ads.
China has over 100,000 unemployable engineers. These individuals are so devoid of interpersonal skills that they do not fit in with normal workplaces.
Engineers have to continually update skill sets or they find that their skills are beyond the pull date. It is a very perishable degree, albeit one with very high starting salaries.
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Companies do not want quality workers, they want cheap workers. You can be a top notch STEM worker yet rejected for a horde of imported H1b scabs.
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Adapt or perish, eh?
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So business is “mighty disappointed” in schools.
Uh, is this what E. D. Hirsch was referring to when he used the phrase “the whine patrol”?
Inquiring minds want to know…
😎
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I love businessmen’s ideas about education. Today I was treated to a broadcast of an education forum on KQED featuring some Texan demanding an “edu-conomy” (??), an Autodesk executive suggesting we rebuild the SAT from the ground up to test for Slilcon Valley-friendly skills, the Silicon Valley moderator’s applauding anytime anyone said schools should be more entrepreneurial and teach entrepreneurship… Of course, not a single expert TEACHER on the panel! In this mix of self-righteous and self-assured business-centric minds, David Coleman was, by contrast, a voice of reason –pushing back against their demands to remake education in Silicon Valley’s image. Not to say that he was very cogent: he cited polls that teachers respect the AP exams because they “honor” the teaching the actually do (i.e. teaching a body of KNOWLEDGE), unlike the SAT (I agree), but then touting the SBAC –which is the anthithesis of the AP exams in that it tests NO body of knowledge –as the salvation of American education! He had a sidekick there who clearly believed that developing sharp minds is mainly a function of practicing reading hard texts and writing about them. It was illuminating to hear her reiterate “practice, practice, practice”. She and Coleman seem to naively believe this will turn a knowledge-poor ghetto kid into Harvard lit-crit material. This reveals a deep lack of understanding of how the mind develops –in this they are very like their Silicon Valley co-panelists. Coleman’s thoughts have not gelled, they’re incoherent. He lauds content, but he doesn’t seem to grasp that his other messaging sends an anti-content message to the lemmings who want to follow him.
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If you would like to see how to develop “kids from the ghetto into Harvard students” study, ( but please do not call ) LA’s Hobart Shakespeareans. This program, which adds a solid classics education to the standard LAUSD program, has created solid citizens for a quarter of a century.
Testing is not going to get us there, teaching will. High stakes standardized testing has robbed our next generation of a decade of learning for much of the nation.
This is one program that works in inspiring an exceptional work ethic and confidence into kids from the very worst conditions in the poorest section of Los Angeles in broken homes where English is rarely spoken at home.
It works. What else really matters?????
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011600502.html
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2003-12-29/rafe-esquith-there-are-no-shortcuts-pantheon-rebroadcast
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The root cause of the failure of the Soviet Union was that enormous resources were allocated to goods and services that the marketplace had no use for.
In the US, as well as in the global market for human capital resources, there is continual and perpetual changing in the needs of the marketplace.
Those companies still focused on the production of vacuum tubes will find their revenues dwindling.
The somewhat dated 1998 white paper by The Director of Research of The Hudson Institute, Edwin S. Rubinstein “The College Payoff Illusion” does an excellent job of clarifying the difference between a workforce that is degreed and one that is functionally literate.
http://web1.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/college.htm
Much of the effort of incumbent Texas Governor Rick Perry and of the Texas Legislature has been to produce college graduates who hold degrees. Governor Perry has frequently gone on record advocating the need for a $10,000 degree for Texas students.
It is probably noteworthy that the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M soundly rejected the application for admission of one Rick Perry decades ago due to his abysmal performance in undergraduate work, especially the lab science courses.
I suggest that history might have been much kinder if one Adolf Hitler had not been rejected from admission to one Vienna Art School; as well as one Rick Perry had not been rejected from admission to vet school at Texas A & M.
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