Does MPS have a future in vocational education

A recent article reported on a new program to train adults in welding, held at the former North Division High School. Oddly, there is no mention of MPS or what happened to North's welding program. Similarly a front-page article today reports on a Public Policy Forum report slamming the city for its development efforts, particularly the neglect of workforce development. Again there is no mention of MPS. It appears that MPS has become irrelevant to preparing people for the workforce.

Ten years ago, when I first ran for the Milwaukee school board, I prepared a flyer lifting five goals I hoped to accomplish. One--allow high schools to apply admissions standards--was completely accomplished. Despite controversy and opposition at the time, there has been no effort to role it back. Three others enjoyed considerable progress--add more specialty schools, move decision making from the central bureaucracy to schools and parents, and identify and eliminate wasteful spending--although more remains to be done.

The fifth, however, was a complete failure--restore Milwaukee's leadership in vocational education. This failure hurts Milwaukee students who miss out on good jobs. It also hurts Milwaukee's economic future if companies cannot find skilled workers.

The reasons that vocational education is so difficult to promote in MPS is not totally clear to me, but stems partly from a culture that only values college, from the economics of shop classes, and from a seniority system that does not recognize experience in the trades.

My guess is that leadership in this area will have to come from somewhere else than MPS. For example, the mechanisms are in place for a charter school sponsored by MATC, a trade union, or an industry group.