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Growing Our Local Economy One Highly Skilled and Educated
Student at a Time
By Kevin Dalton,
President, Toledo Federation of Teachers
Guest Column
This is a very quick
history lesson, I promise. The economies of Toledo and many
other American cities boomed after World War II. This
economic nirvana happened in large part because the U.S.
federal government provided overall national economic
stability while state and local governments mostly focused
on local issues, such as creating and funding local
education systems to produce skilled students for the local
workforce. This partnership and division of responsibilities
worked well to provide both a stable economic environment
for businesses to operate in and a steady flow of prepared
workers that created a vibrant middle class.
So, what went wrong?
During the 1970s and
1980s, state and local governments became fixated on
lowering taxes as a way to kick-start their local economies
and attract new businesses. But, this shortsighted policy
led to cities and states outbidding each other to reduce
their taxes lower and lower, which forced them to cut costs
by starving school systems and slashing vital programs,
essentially closing off the true pipeline for a strong
economic environment—a continuous supply of highly skilled
workers.
It took us a while, but we
learned our lesson and are starting to get it right. And
just in time, too.
With the emergence of the
new global knowledge economy, a strong local economy that
attracts and retains new industries and businesses can be
achieved through the promise of a high-quality 21st-century
career and technical education, just like the one we are
building in the Toledo Public Schools. The Toledo Federation
of Teachers is working with labor groups and businesses to
create an educational system that provides students the
technical and cognitive skills they will need to compete in
the 21-century workplace.
Let me be clear: We are
not just calling old vocational education programs something
new. This is a fundamental reconceptualization of how we
educate students, ensuring that they are skilled both with
their minds and with their hands. Students can not only be
taught a discrete set of skills; they must be taught how to
use their minds well so that they can adapt and acquire the
new knowledge and skills their jobs will demand over the
coming years. Highly skilled students are what will draw new
businesses and industries to our city and stop the “brain
drain” in Northwest Ohio.
It is schools like the
Toledo Technology Academy that are leading the way. The
Toledo Technology Academy is a four-year public high school
that provides an academically and technologically rigorous
curriculum to prepare students for careers in engineering,
robotics, alternative energy, manufacturing and other
technical fields. These students are acquiring the tech
skills, higher-level thinking and reasoning skills, and
teamwork experiences they will need to excel in college, go
on to advanced training programs or go directly to highly
paid professions.
But don’t take my word for
it. Just this past week , leaders from national unions,
school superintendents, members of engineering societies and
local elected representatives toured the Toledo Technology
Academy to learn how it was created and see how it has been
successfully run and expanded by a governing board of
educators and labor and business leaders. These community
leaders want to use the Toledo Technology Academy as a model
to help transform other school systems to better prepare
students for college and career, as well as spur economic
development and job creation in their communities. The
Toledo Federation of Teachers was integral in the creation
of the Toledo Technology Academy, and we want to continue to
reclaim the promise of a high-quality public education for
all children. We can do that by building on the Toledo
Technology Academy’s success and by embracing the new
Macomber High School as a 21st-century building and trades
vocational school.
For struggling cities and
students alike, high-quality career and technical education
is the path to a brighter future and can break the vicious
cycle of lacking highly paid jobs because there are too few
highly skilled workers to fill them. Let’s ensure that all
children have the opportunity to dream their dreams and
achieve them. Let’s help our public schools become centers
of their communities, and let’s fulfill public education’s
purpose as a propeller of our economy, an anchor of our
democracy and a gateway to racial, social and economic
justice. |
