WBEZ has been running it's Chicago Matters series with the focus on education this time. This series is alway in depth and quite informative. I was listening last Thursday (the 28th) when I heard something on the series that really blew my mind. I didn't want to post this until it was available for listening.
There was a two parter on the 27th and 28th that discussed schools, skills and jobs - vocational education. I was listening with half interest to the story until there was a short discussion that really made me think seriously about what the people in charge of our schools have done to our kids.
Remember, Vallas and Chico decided to turn the whole system into a college prep program and pretty much destroyed what was left of vocational education - not that there was much left by the time they got intot he system, and I saw first hand the inability of the board to actually implement any sort of meaningful vocational education.
Ok, so the story was about vocation education. Apparently there is a movement afoot by the Board to build some sort of new type of vocational school on the South or South-West Side. There is an R.F.P. out, and WBEZ interviewed an insufferable guy named Dan Sweney who had an idea. He wants to build something called the "Austin Polytechnic" that would provide a "good education." From which a "kid" "could choose to go anywhere he wanted to go." Sweney goes on the say that, "the kids would also have credentials which would allow him to immediately enter a skilled position in a local company." Now I don't know who this Dan Sweney is - I doubt his proposal will be the one that gets through because I think he's just BSing (I hope), but something along the lines of "Austin Polytechnic" will probably be built.
So what's the problem? You might ask?
Well, here's a way to answer the question with another question - why don't they build a "polytechnic on the North Side?" The answer to this question is almost the same as "Why didn't they build a new 40 million dollar college prep school in the Austin Neighborhood?"
Here's the answer- Chico High North Side College Prep was build for all of the white and Asians on the far north side middle class families who might otherwise leave Chicago.
Austin Polytechnic will be built for the Black and Hispanic Kids who should be going to college but get steered to the school for smart black and Hispanic kids even though they might want to go to a college prep kids who might just want to go into the job force after high school.
Do you all see the answer, or do I have to make myself perfectly clear
"Austin Polytechnic" and North Side College Prep are separated by 7 miles, but their education is the same - that is equal.
Now, I am not against giving those students who want the chance to learn a trade to go into the work force - in fact I think a good system would be beneficial - one school is not going to do it. I think that there should be regional polytechnics just like there are regional magnet schools - that way all kids could have a choice. I think however that is dangerous to place a vocational school on the South Side because it just fits in with the stereotype of the African American male or Hispanic Male who doesn't want to go college. Who knows - there might be some whites and Asians who might want to learn a trade instead of being sent to some insufferable college prep.
Here's a good trade - let's first build a college prep in Austin and a vocational school up on the North then we can do the reverse? No? I didn't think so.
