Training? Eduction? For What? Find The Jobs First!

FIRST, Let's stop lying to the people of this city.  I mean those who live in the real DC.  The DC of Ivy City, of Trinidad and Anacostia of Wards 7 and 8.  Here's my take on the priorities of DOES and the of non profit alliance who maintain their lifestyles by training people for this "no decent jobs" environment.  There is an organization called putatively, The DC Jobs Council.  It has little to do about new jobs. It is in fact an association of non profits who provide so called job training for the unemployed here in the district.  Mostly, in my opinion, they train people for jobs that do not exist.  The DC Jobs Council is essentially a trade association that seeks the interest of those who earn their respective livings (and jobs) training people for low paying, food stamp and medicare subsidized jobs.

NEXT, Let's face it .....BOTH THE PRIVATE (CHARTER) PRIMARY AND

SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DC HAVE FAILED!  Though a product of, and an advocate for education as a concept - at the secondary level, at least or DC, education has largely been a bust. We have lost the war for the hearts and minds of many if not most of our teenagers here in DC.  The metriculation rate, if you get the real numbers ...? around 50% ,,, half of our inner city kids make it. ... if we use jobs as a measure? The unemployment rate for high school grads and non-grads being only onepercent apart (19vs20% respectively. The value of a high school

education to a job seeker here in DC (unless one seeks post secondary advancement) is zero, zilch, nada!

The structural problems of the neighborhoods resulting, at least in part, from the palpable failure of primary and secondary education Will NOT be solved by any intervention that uses traditional education as abase strategy.

I realize that there are no simple answers and I do not have a

comprehensive solution but there seems to be no one out there

innovating.

THIS I BELIEVE ...The focus should not be on jobs training but jobs CREATION. Find the jobs! Create an incentive for employers to come! Guarantee them trained workers by training for the specific jobs. Usehigh tech potable training facilities that can be moved from site to site.  Use journey level trained instructors.  Honda did it in Ohio...and with illiterate workers.

HERE'S WHAT I'D DO ... 

I would switch the PRIMRY focus from GENERAL education to technical english and general arithmetic (so people canread and comprehend manuals and instructional media) Also ... teachremedial math using mediated individualized instruction (validated computer based training) I would stop all non-specific job training and place the responsibility on employers to train on demand, eliminating the need for any level of education to be required.  How many people are being "educated" for jobs that DO NOT exist (not jobs that require the

employee to apply for food stamps)

I question the fundamental value of a system of jobs training that isdedicated to produce an underclass of people who will live in subsidized servitude as the flotsam of the late information age.