Baton Rouge Community College - 15,000+ students
Okay just trying to get your attention with a provocative title.
Background. Every month or two(?) we have an early release day. Pick up first daughter at at McKinley Middle 11:30 a.m. then drive to pick up second daughter at Baton Rouge High. Along the way there is an empty lot with a small trailer that advertizes barbecue. Normally it is closed when I drive that way in the afternoon. But on early release days I have formed the habit of taking the opportunity to stop and get a barbecue sandwich, side, and drink.
Arguably the best dang barbecue in the city. They have a piece of paper on the window that sez so.
Anyways they are so friendly and so are others who come by. Have been getting to know this guy who comes for lunch – wears Dickie work clothes, long gray hair, glasses. Apparently his kids went to Baton Rouge High. Today asked him about his work. They build “big ass mufflers for boats” – as in tugboats. As in mufflers that are 3 feet diameter and 10 feet long. How is business? Good. Everyone been working full hours without having to go into overtime. He has six employees.
They make $28 an hour.
Wow. That’s good money. Making “big ass mufflers” for boats? That’s more than I make.
He tells me about his two best employees a father-son team. The son is 18 and been going to the vocational school up the road.
“Back in Massachusetts we had that. It was one of your options”.
Yeah but here it is like college – after high school.
He is from Chicago and knows just what I am talking about. They had shop, metalwork, woodworking, automotive, eventually even plastics. Each year they built and sold a house and a fiberglass mold – covered materials for the entire school year. Good stuff.
Here’s my point.
We have too many colleges and universities – or at the very least not enough vocational schools and community colleges.
Several months ago was reading National Review and they had a list of twelve things that would revitalize the middle class. One of them was this very issue – strengthen our non-college non-university educational institutions. I say this as someone who went to university and has three graduate degrees. But not everyone who goes to college will get a good job. How many people four years and tens possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars later are still not able to find work in their field? For some reason we have gotten to the point where it is considered a basic requirement.
Is it? What about trades? skills?
The director of Teach for America for this region – who grew up in this church – mentioned that Louisiana with its population size really only needs two universities. We have several state and several private. The courses/credits do not always transfer smoothly between community colleges and universities or even between different universities in the state system. Louisiana greatly needs to strengthen its network of vocational schools and community colleges – and coordinate them better with the state university system.
So that a kid with mediocre grades and almost no money can start at a community college… knock out his core requirements… transfer to a university… and eventually get a PhD.
Think I am exaggerating?
My grandfather Edwin Warner was for much of his career the dean of Mohawk Valley Community College which was the first community college in the state of New York. His great achievement was to visit big universities around the state and ask “what do you require – in terms of your core courses and basic course requirements?” So he went back and made sure that students at Mohawk Valley got what the universities expected – so they could transfer to those universities and all their courses and credits would transfer with them.
And he did not have a PhD. Although people often addressed him as “Doctor” Warner.
He used to get letters from people decades later – people with PhDs, CEOs of companies, professors, doctors, engineers – thanking my grandfather for the start they got at Mohawk Valley Community College.
And what if someone does not go any farther? What is wrong with an Associates degree in a useful trade that leads to a solid job?
Just thinking out loud.
With my two master’s degrees and a doctorate – I make less than experienced skilled high school graduates who build “big ass mufflers” for boats. Not that I need to change careers. So much as to emphasize that if we want to help Americans get a good education that leads to good job…
It does not necessarily mean we need to work on getting everyone a college education.
