Mr. Morris Says "High Tech"

"No Child Left Behind," "Common Core," ad nauseum. First, make no mistake that we here at Shoalanda want every child in Alabama to receive the best possible education; however, we have only to look back sixty or so years and count the so call magic bullets that were supposed to make this possible to know there is no one size fits all solution.

Not all children are created equal. We can’t expect every child in the public school system to emerge a brain surgeon. We can make sure they don’t drop out before they’re old enough to realize the consequences.

Surprisingly, many who drop out say they will go back some day—either to public school or to obtain a GED. We’ll inject here that a GED isn’t really worth that much in some circles unless it’s followed by some college classes. Yes, it’s easy to say they’ll go back, but few actually do.

Not everyone agrees, but we believe if scientific research shows 16 year-olds aren’t old enough to drive a vehicle responsibly or to make sane and safe choices in relation to certain laws, then they just may not have the ability to understand what dropping out really means. Not everyone who graduates from high school will go on to college. In fact, we’re told now that too many waste years and thousands of dollars on college classes which don’t help them one iota in the real world.

It would seem our state school system is very much like Helen Keller Hospital. If they will spend as much time and money on just getting the job done as they have on implementing a fancy new program every eight to ten years, then our children will reap tremendous benefits.

In the which came first department, the TimesDaily’s Scott Morris recently lamented the lack of high tech companies outside Huntsville. He seemed to feel if more Alabamians had more fancy degrees, then more high tech business would locate in this state.

Obviously the high tech businesses that Morris referred to all came about because of the U.S. Space program which located in Madison County. It came first; the workers followed. We don’t doubt that Alabama schools produce many graduates with little gray cells to spare. Neither do we doubt most of these young people leave Alabama when they graduate.

Much job recruitment is at the state level. Perhaps it’s just easier for the governor on down to the mayors to recruit the manufacturing jobs that Alabama is blessed with? While we think government often gets into micro-management, we would definitely support a special recruiting program for these high tech jobs that apparently elude our wonderful state.

Shoalanda