School-to-Work Program Divides Conejo Trustees

Depending on who’s talking, it is either the renaissance of vocational education or the death of classic, Western learning.

School-to-work programs, the latest effort to prepare children for the working world, rarely draw a neutral response. And as trustees of the Conejo Valley Unified School District prepare to grapple with the issue Thursday, they find themselves as divided as other Ventura County parents and school officials have been over the programs’ merits.

Trustees are scheduled to vote on whether to support a countywide application for $2.6 million in federal grant money to fund school-to-work programs in local schools. The county superintendent of schools office has already sent the application to Sacramento, where a state panel will decide by late summer whether to award the grant.

Broadly put, school-to-work programs try to tie classroom lessons to the working world. Students learn the practical, workplace application of such basic skills as writing, science or math and are shown, perhaps as early as elementary school, the different career paths available to them.

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To supporters on the Conejo school board, school-to-work efforts seem like a common-sense extension of existing district programs.

For about 20 years, Trustee Dorothy Beaubien noted, the district has worked with aerospace giant Rockwell International to provide internships to high school students, some of whom have later gone on to work for the company.

“We’re already doing it, but it would be a good thing to expand,” she said. “It’s very important to prepare [students] for a world of work.”

But to Trustee Elaine McKearn, the school-to-work effort is full of potential pitfalls. It would shift the emphasis of education away from learning how to think in favor of learning how to work. It would create another layer of bureaucracy made up of administrators hired to implement the program, she said. And by accepting federal money, the district might have to cede to the government some control over the program.

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“It’s another government mandate coming down from above,” she said. “When the government starts getting its nose into things, it starts dictating what’s appropriate.”

The grant money does come with some strings attached, said county schools Supt. Charles Weis. But the requirements that come with the grant are less complex and demanding than those attached to funds for other programs, such as special education classes, he said.

“The strings are not that onerous,” Weis said.

Specifically, those receiving the money must give the government assurances that students receiving on-the-job training as part of a school-to-work program will not be exploited in the workplace, he said. The agency receiving funds must also pledge to follow all present and future labor and school-related laws, something Weis noted that public servants already must do.

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A vocal fan of school-to-work programs, Weis applied unsuccessfully for a countywide grant in 1995, even after a divided Ventura County school board voted against pursuing the money. He said opponents are motivated largely by a fear of change.

He argues that if the grant is awarded, participating school districts would be able to shape their own programs to suit their needs.

“Each local district will decide how its program will be implemented,” Weis said. “It’s not one size fits all.”