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It's in business' interest to help curb dropouts
Ohanian Comment: I've long held the view that reading online comments people make to newspapers is bad for one's health. I'm mainly posting this editorial because of the outrageous comment that followed. Such comments convince me even more that we shouldn't be educating for 21st Century workers; we should be educating for democracy, for civic participation, for the information and knowledge for the common good.
However, the writer does have a point. Of what use is high school attendance when authorities everybody must be put through the same college prep curriculum?
Editorial
Robert Scott has taken a beating since he suggested last week that Texas employers shouldn't hire dropouts. Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond, in so many words, told the state's education commissioner to stay out of business's business. Others have gone after Scott for proposing an unenforceable system. (The Dallas Morning News story about his proposal has drawn more than 140 comments on dallasnews.com.)
Scott tells us he's merely trying to uphold the law. He cited a federal act that limits employment of people 14 and younger and a state law that requires teens to be in school.
On the technicalities, it's hard to argue against him, but there's a larger point: As much as we hate kids dropping out, sooner or later they need to put food on their table. In reality, they could be trying to help feed an entire family.
There's also this reality: A job could keep them off the street and the dole.
Scott, however, has another point, and this one makes sense. He wants businesses to work with dropout employees to enroll them in flex-time schools run by school districts or charter schools. Businesses could do everything from developing a serious partnership with local schools to putting information about education options at the time clock or somewhere young dropouts would see it.
Houston, he says, has a program that educates employers about helping dropouts finish school. Why don't chambers of commerce across the state start doing something similar? The bottom line, after all, is fewer Texas adults trying to survive without diplomas.
An online response:
Posted by COMMANDER
Doesn't make a difference anyway. Public education is nothing more than adolescent day care. Just a place to keep kids off the streets for 6 hours a day and feed them a taxpayer furnished lunch. The sooner they get to work, the better. We need the income taxes.
— Editorial
Dallas Morning News
2009-08-05
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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