School-to-Career: The Program Works

Get real.

Get a life.

Time for a reality check.

High school students tend to speak those phrases with industrial-strength irony, but in fact there’s a lot of excellent advice in them.

That’s why we support the concept of school-to-career programs, which try to connect classroom lessons to the working world.

The idea has plenty of opponents, and parental involvement in local school decisions is a good thing. But in our view many of the fears in this case are based on misinformation. Potential benefits outweigh any hazards.

Created by an act of Congress in 1994 and praised by President Clinton, school-to-career seeks to bring students into the workplace and professionals onto campuses in an academic-vocational partnership.

Such efforts are already working successfully in several Ventura County high school districts and could be expanded to others if a pending federal grant application pays off.

Some parents, educators and others have strong reservations about the plan, which was endorsed Thursday night by the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

Among those concerns:

* Accepting federal money could undermine local control of the programs, and give the Feds more say in how Ventura County schools are run. County schools Supt. Charles Weis, who applied unsuccessfully for a similar grant in 1995 against the wishes of a divided school board, says the federal program leaves plenty of room for local districts to tailor their own.

* The program could become mandatory for all students. Weis says the grant criteria make it clear that the federal money can only be used for optional programs.

* The emphasis on work could water down the emphasis on academics. Existing programs prove the value of combining real-world experience with classroom learning. Anyone who has taught both high school students and adults will tell you that adults tend to be much more eager to learn. This is not because of age, but because they have seen firsthand how much they don’t know and how much better life would be with more education.

* Steering students into careers too soon could limit their openness to other options later on. Students in the county’s existing school-to-career programs have found that the opportunity to try out a particular career is as helpful for learning what you don’t want to do as for getting a start on something you do want to do. Either way, it’s a step in the right direction.

Education is a wonderful thing, the more the better. But there are important lessons that can only be learned by doing. The value of being responsible, reliable and on time. The real-world reasons for learning all that grammar and math. The importance of asking questions when you don’t understand. The diplomatic skills required to deal with a jerk when that jerk happens to be a customer--or the boss.

College admissions boards and future potential employers appreciate such things.

If carefully conceived and monitored, school-to-career has the potential to be an excellent added value for Ventura County high school students.

Parents who remain concerned should learn more about their local school’s specific plans to adapt the idea and continue to monitor their progress.

Education is a wonderful thing, the more the better. But there are important lessons that can only be learned by doing.