Panel Wants Emphasis on Career Classes

Vocational programs in Los Angeles County public schools are deteriorating, and students who are not college-bound are facing unemployment in greater numbers as schools move “back to basics,” authorities said at a hearing Monday.

Members of the county’s Commission on Human Relations said that the increasing neglect of vocational training has affected primarily minority youths, whose unemployment rate has reached 50%, doubling that of majority youth unemployment in some areas of the region.

The emphasis on basic skills and the college-bound student has meant that those entering the work force from high school are no longer prepared to do so, Kathleen Moore, director of occupational, vocational and career education for the Pasadena Unified School District, said.

Moore said students who would fit well into vocational training programs have been discouraged by career counselors determined to get most of their students into college. The result is a class of unskilled and unprepared people, she said.

LaJuana Butler said she is attending vocational classes at La Puente Valley Adult School to compensate for what she missed in high school.

“I do not want to work at McDonald’s for the rest of my life,” she said.

Commission President James M. Riewer said he hopes that “spotlighting the problem” will cause “career education” to again be a “meaningful part” of the curriculum.