Have you noticed Bush hammering on his "Leave No Child Behind- Educating for the 21st Century" agenda. This hard-hitting critque addresses the real issues head on.
http://newdemocracyworld.org/Susan-jobs-21st.htmEducating Kids for Jobs for the 21st Century
by Susan Ohanian
Excerpts:
"Standardistos"--business leaders calling for "high standards" for students--blather about schools preparing kids for jobs for the 21st century at the same time they are outsourcing jobs overseas faster than we can count. Writing in Fortune in June 2003, Nelson D. Schwartz noted, "Of the nine million Americans out of a job, 17.4% are managers or specialty workers. . . ." They should ask the Business Roundtable, Education Trust, Progressive Policy Institute and all the other outfits pushing algebra as the gateway to success why their high skill diplomas haven?t kept them safe.
Barry Bluestone, Professor of Political Economy at Northeastern University and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy explained that during the deep recession of the 1980s, high school drop outs were four times as likely to be unemployed as college graduates. But these days, you have higher probability of facing unemployment if you have some college than if you have none?or are a college graduate. Even with a bachelor?s degree or more, Bluestone emphasized, you are as likely to face unemployment as a high school graduate.
In information technology we?ve lost 11% of the jobs that existed in February 2001. Outfits like IBM call it outsourcing. A more honest name would be pad-the-company-profits. They increase their profits by shipping the jobs to India or the Philippines.
Consider this: Every month of George Bush II?s tenure, 80,000 jobs have disappeared. Every month. Government jobs, once considered safe, are disappearing too. More than 115,000 government employees have lost their jobs since February 2003.
The Standardisto-screaming headlines about the high skills needed for jobs for the 21st century are a scam. In reality, jobs of the 21st century are not different from those of the 20th century. All one has to do is check the projections of U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010:
22% of jobs will require four years of college
9% of jobs will rquire an AA degree?some technical training.
That leaves a whole lot of jobs for high school graduates. The crime is, not that there are no jobs, but that these jobs don?t come with a living wage.
Anyone who thinks the working poor are to blame for their condition should read Barbara Ehrenreich?s Nickel and Dimed. It will change your life.
Rothstein observed that we distribute jobs by social class. If we ?qualify? all students with a college degree, then 100% of students will be competing for the 22% of jobs requiring college degrees. The answer here is not to push more kids in to college but pay better salaries to those jobs not requiring college.
