Whoa--A Post--The "College for All" Mentality

So I'm back to posting--nothing major, just some thoughts on stuff.



Anyway, other than the ridiculous banking regulations that President Obama has put into place, the one other thing that really bothers me about his administration has been the emphasis on "College for All" while excluding 'middle skill' jobs as just an 'add-on.' Part of this effort has been good--such as shutting out federal dollars from going to abusive, tuition-starved for-profit or faux non-profit "colleges."

Fact of the matter is, there is some serious cash for our economy in promoting 'middle skill' jobs--but first, what are those? Middle skills are those skills attained after one graduates high school--which everyone needs to do--in terms of a 2-year Associates degree, training program, or apprenticeship. How do I know there's a lot of money in that? Well, because people smarter than I at the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte did a study that said that 600,000 high-paying, skilled manufacturing workers were needed--THAT DON'T EXIST. This is the "skills gap"--no about individuals as much as it is about our total economy. This is something similar to its more well cousin, the achievement gap, which is about marginalized populations of kids--mainly poor minorities--that do not succeed in the classroom as well as their white counterparts (even when controlled for income).

So why does this matter? Well, it matters a great deal.When 2/3 of all manufacturers that took this survey said that they didn't have the skilled workers in their area to fill necessary jobs, that's money lost for individuals, that company, and our economy. What would happen if we had 600,000 more employed people in this country? Well, President Obama would win in a landslide election victory, housing starts (the measure of how many homes are being built) would return to relatively normal levels, the U.S. savings rate would jump, and oh yeah--people would be buying things again, which means that sales tax collections--a.k.a. what funds most state budgets--would be kicked back into gear. Otherwise, we're just ballin' on a budget and looking stupid.

Now, I'm not saying this is easy (nope), possible (meh...kinda), or a magic bullet (no such thing). But it's a damn good start.

One of the problems with K-12 education (granted, I've never worked in K-12, but after hearing from people who do as well as having worked in workforce development) is that you've got college graduates (teachers) working for college graduates (administrators) for students that, by and large, will not be completing college in the normal 4-year cycle. (An organization named Complete College America has some fantastic information on college completion rates, state by state, and offers some great insight into this matter).

So, what can we do?

First things first, have a real workforce strategy for our national economy. We have the Federal Reserve for monetary policy--a macroeconomic concern--but why not something around workforce readiness--another, truly macro idea?

Second, get real information on what middle skill jobs are. A college degree doesn't carry that much weight when it comes to getting into the right fields. What's important to note is that even though I have a 4-year college, I don't qualify for a high-paying job as a machine technician (think missile launcher) or large-scale mechanic (think jet engine) or physician's assistant (think money in the bank) because I don't have the right kind of technical training. These are incredibly valuable positions, and need to be seen as such. You're not a failure if you don't go to a 4-year college--we all KNOW that, but we kinda need to SAY it.

Lastly, find a good funding model for this sort of education. We abuse our tax system in this country (uh-oh! I'm getting all tax-ey). Why not use taxes from manufacturers to train the next generation of manufacturing workers? WHAT A CONCEPT. Obviously, this isn't a brilliant end-all-be-all idea, but perhaps this makes the argument for taxing these companies more reasonable. YESH?

Thoughts? Post 'em.

Also, I'm in love with Kimbra. You'll see why: