I know this is an odd title, especially since I haven't posted a blog in almost a month. A month!! Can you believe that? The month of July swallowed me, spit me out and now I'm back at school. This summer was crazy busy, but the busy-ness allowed me to pack as many visits with family, friends and conferences as I could into 10 weeks. Today was my first day "officially" back on the job and it was a good one at that. I am planning on posting more in the coming weeks, but I can't promise anything. Anyway, I thought I'd share an excerpt from an interesting article that a fellow Ag teacher and friend passed along to me....it's sad to read, especially since I am a high school teacher from the state mentioned in the article. Please pray for our educators, our legislators...and me as I begin a new year!
Turning around Arizona's reputation for educational mediocrity
Published on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Copyright (c) 2010 Inside Tucson Business
According to a new study, Arizona is winning a race, not to the top but to the bottom - we are about to lead the nation in jobs for high school dropouts. To help reverse this dangerous trend, the state must reshape its higher education system to attract, serve and graduate more college students. (Katy's note: not every kid needs to go to college, but they better not drop out of high school!!)
The study by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce tells us that Arizonans are at-risk of being locked out of the middle class. (Katy's note: who is Uncle Sam gonna use to pick up the slack when it comes to taxes if we don't have a middle class? [Insert evil laugh.]) It predicts that Arizona will have enough jobs for high school dropouts, but soon we will be woefully deficient in the number of college graduates needed to fill the high wage, modern jobs that businesses demand.
What may be most concerning about this report is that it speaks to a persistent mediocrity in our state. Already, 45 percent of Arizona's high school students do not pursue any form of higher education after high school - the lowest rate among 50 states. Only 25 percent of Arizonan's hold bachelor's degrees.
1 comment:
Isn't it odd we know people contributing to this statistic?
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