Saturday, May 18, 2013

College Readiness Mayor Says Skip College, Become A Plumber

Mayor Bloomberg offers some career advice:

Some advice from career counselor Mayor Bloomberg: If you are a so-so high school student, steer clear of college — and learn to clear clogged drains.

Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show Friday that going to trade school to become a plumber is a better economic bet for many teenagers than obtaining an undergraduate degree.
“The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren’t rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class,” he said.

“Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College — being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal.”

He said plumbers make a good living without having to pay off college loans.
“You don’t spend ... four years spending $40,000, $50,000 in tuition without earning income,” he explained.
Another benefit: Plumbers don’t have to worry about their jobs being outsourced or handled by computers. “It’s hard to farm that out ... and it’s hard to automate that,” he said.

The mayor said “a number” of studies conclude that plumbers start their careers with less debt and higher wages than their peers who attend college.

This is some interesting advice from the mayor who has made "College Readiness" one of the signature policies of the education reform movement he has pursued in NYC schools.

Every class students take these days must promote "College Readiness" by forcing students to write argumentative essays and read information texts with complex vocabulary.

Even in art class and vocational classes, argumentative essay writing and informational text reading has replaced all other activities.

Want to practice fashion design in your fashion design class? 

Sorry - not until you write that argumentative essay about Coco Channel.

Want to draw and paint in your art class?

Sorry - not until you read this twenty page handout on perspective during the Renaissance and write a  three page summary using twenty five words from your lexical array of complex text terms.

I actually agree with the mayor that students who are not enamored of the academic life should find themselves a skill or trade that pays well and cannot be outsourced.

Quite frankly, we need more skilled plumbers, electricians, and the like, but the mayor's Department of Education has done everything it can to dismiss this kind of educational track by closing vocational schools, forcing the remaining vocational schools to turn vocational classes into academic classes and tracking how many students schools send off to college after graduation and using those statistics in the school report card metrics.

Is the mayor unaware of the consequences of his education policies in the NYC school system that privilege the college track over everything else or was he just blathering on to fill air time on his radio program?

14 comments:

  1. Nixonian Point of ViewMay 18, 2013 at 1:28 PM

    You are correct, RBE, becoming a plumber can't be all that bad. The money is good, benefits are paid, and you could actually have a house with a pretty white fence around it. In the Mayor's world, plumbing is similar to Watergate...they got caught, were found guilty, the president nearly impeached...and the all were surrounded by a house , not with a pretty white fence, but with barbed wire!

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    1. Looks like the Obama administration could have used some skilled plumbers too!

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  2. I have no problems with trade schools. But I do recall under his leadership, many of those programs were scrapped along with night school. JFK once said we pay our plumbers more than we do our teachers, and he was right then and it still holds true now.

    But, who is a rocket scientist??? There are degrees that are not science oriented by still follow the passion of the student. My friend's daughter followed her passion--archeology. She is making very little money working at a museum, but is happy. Her fiancé is an electrician, but he is not making a lot of money due to the economy. And it took him many years to finally get into the union.

    We should support trade schools, but only Bloomberg can make a statement that also disparages plumbers or any one else in the service industry, Many of them are way smarter than rocket scientists. However, talk to many engineers who have wonderful college grades and background who are out of work. Rocket scientists are not being hired either and many are driving cabs. And many in finance have been laid off.

    The only field with a promising future now is tech. Yet we are a country that overlooks our own talent and would rather outsource. We really have to go back to buying "American". That's the only way this country will succeed economically. And then people who want to become whatever their passion is will find a job.

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    1. It seems the only people who make money these days are the one's in finance. And even there, it's only the one's at the top.

      I think the financialization of the economy and globalization are to blame for much of this problem. Bloomberg himself has benefited from both of these. So have the other oligarchs - use the working and middle classes against each other, suck up all the resources, steal most of the wealth via the Fed and the banking system.

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    2. You got that right. My nephew is out of a job because his bosses cashed out and closed the company. They decided to go the hedge-fund route, and of course blamed the economy. So now he is Mr. Mom to his new baby boy. A career in finance is tricky unless it's your company and you can play with other people's money no matter what the consequences.

      I think I am a capitalist at heart because I started investing at the age of 30 and it has helped me build up a portfolio that allowed me to retire before working at top salary. If I had to work one extra year just to increase my pension, I doubt I would have survived. It's tougher when you know your hands are tied to teach the way you know will benefit the students.

      I am a believer in regulations that make sense, but lately these regulations have no bite.

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    3. You were able to invest and make money in the old days, but now it's a very dicey game. Quants, electronic trading, insider trading, fixed LIBOR and bond markets - hard to play on that field and not lose.

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  3. I request that you seek and and have Joe The Plumber from the Republican darling add his voice to this discussion. As for Bloomberg I cannot wait until his garbage is flushed down the old pipe.

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  4. I noticed that...May 18, 2013 at 8:06 PM

    The Mayor4Life closed so many CTE schools that had the best trade courses for kids who did not want the college path. He took away "choice" for many kids while promoting "choice schools". Now that he's leaving everything in complete ruins in the education system for the next mayor and cannot buy a 4th term, he is promoting plumbing as a good career.

    To all the plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics out there, when Bloomberg's toilet overfloods with his s**t, his wires can cause a fire in his townhouse, and his limo fails to run, don't help him and don't give him the service. Let him go up in flame and drown in his own manure and no limo to take him to the nearest hospital he closed.

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    Replies
    1. And of course the press will blame the next mayor for the mess rather than Bloomberg.

      That Bloomberg owns the press will have nothing to do with that, of course...

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  5. I am impressed! Very useful information. I have been reading your blog for some time and I find it to be very useful. Thanks.

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  6. what a great write up, you have shared a very wonderful article which is very helpful and useful..great ideas..

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  7. that is why its very much important that we can keep on tracking our children..This is in keeping with good parenting skills, which say that you must know where your child is at all times.

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