Letter: Work-force development goals

• Published: Apr 21, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Our governor and the Legislature are seeking solutions to Louisiana’s shortage of a viable work force. They are to be congratulated for addressing this most serious need. Most employers lack the qualified workers to carry on or expand their businesses. Recent reports indicate there are 100,000 unfilled jobs in our state.

It appears that most emphasis is being placed on restructuring and redefining the mission of vocational-technical training and community colleges. These are key components to work-force development and hopefully the goal will be to furnish practical training to eligible high school or GED students in fields such as nursing, auto mechanics, construction, machine operation, plumbing, welding and electrical work, to name a few. These are a large percentage of the unfilled jobs.

An approach that focuses only on students already engaged in the education process will not solve the problem. The crisis is the 16-year-old eighth-grader who drops out of school. This young person is ineligible to enter vocational-technical community colleges and lacks the ability to enter the work force. Only half of the students who enter the ninth grade graduate from high school in Louisiana. Over recent years, this has created an unemployable population of 750,000.

Our current system of education fails to get enough of our young people to a point of high school graduation. This must be corrected if we are ever to have a viable work force, grow our economy and address our serious social problems, such as crime and poverty.

l. To provide training to those needing additional skills to fill the jobs available today.

2. To place even more emphasis on the front end of education. Specifically, provide progressive day care, fund and require statewide Pre-K and intensify our reading programs so every child can read by the fourth grade. We must also provide a curriculum in junior high and high school that includes vocational training courses that serve the needs of our students who are not college bound. I certainly do not advocate lessening standards or emphasis for students in a college preparatory curriculum, but not all students intend to go to college, nor do all good jobs require a degree, and these students should be given equal and quality attention by our schools.

If we are to have a strong economy and the work force on which to build it, we must have a goal to prepare all of our children to have meaningful and productive lives and to enjoy the feeling of self-worth that comes with having a job.