Vocational Schools

As an employee of a vocational/technical/trade school, I take umbrage at your article. I feel your writer was misled on a few issues.

A) There are some people utilizing trade schools as a way to avoid responsibility. It (enrollment and attendance) keeps them from actually getting out in the world and “being somebody.”

B) I’ve seen the good side of this issue. There are many people whose lives have been altered drastically for the good simply by attending a trade school. Talk to former AFDC mothers working at their first “real” jobs; talk with low-level clerks who are now earning more money because they took word-processing classes; talk to the former construction workers who now repair computers and are not subject to weather delays.

First page story: Trade schools a rip-off. Second page, tiny article: Trade-school graduate (former gang member) foils robbery. Slap us hard for isolated bad incidents but don’t even compliment us for the good we bring.

BOB CARR

San Diego