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Walmart offers job training via Detroit Public Schools

Ohanian Comment:

It is the school's job to educate. It is not the school's job to train workers. Period.

As one of the comments at the newspaper website observed, Walmarts are in the suburbs, which will require a lot of travel time from these inner-city schools. It rather sounds like all of the school day will be taken up with getting to Walmart, getting "trained," and getting back.

We don't put much effort into improving the conditions of poverty but are eager to name streets and schools for Martin Luther King. So the kickoff for a program to train students for entry-level parttime jobs at Walmart is at--where else?--Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men. This Walmart training takes place during school time.

And this will close the achievement gap in math and literacy?

By Chastity Pratt Dawsey

The Detroit Public Schools have teamed up with Walmart Stores to provide job training and entry-level, afterschool jobs to students at four high schools.

The training program was kicked off today at assemblies held at Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men and at Western International High.

Detroit International Academy for Women and Henry Ford High will also participate.

Students will get 11 weeks of job-readiness training during the school day and 10 high school credits for the class and work experience.

Sean Vann, principal at Douglass, said 30 students at that school will get jobs at Walmart. He said the program will allow students an opportunity to earn money and to be exposed to people from different cultures -- since all of the stores are in the suburbs.

Donna Stern, a national coordinator for the activist group known as BAMN, attended the assembly at Douglass and objected to the program.

"They’re going to train students to be subservient workers," she said. "This is not why parents send them to school, to learn how to work for Walmart."

— Chastity Pratt Dawsey
Detroit Free Press
2010-02-11
http://www.freep.com/article/201002111548/NEWS01/100211049

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