What Are the Mayoral Candidates
Going To Do About Our Schools?

New York City is holding an election for mayor this year. Considering that the mayor now has operational control over the public school system, we should be asking the candidates several questions: What would they do to stem the dropout rate in the high schools? How would they link education to employment opportunities in the city’s labor market?

New York City’s high schools do not connect to the needs of students. New York State has set high standards for academic success and a Regents diploma. It is easy to talk about raising academic standards, but many of our schools don’t provide the instruction necessary for most students to achieve those standards.

Students Give Up

The result is that a large portion of the student population just gives up on school. Almost half of students in the city’s high schools drop out before graduation. Most of these kids will face monumental hurdles finding a place in our society.

What about those who do graduate? Employers in the private sector have often complained that the city’s high school graduates are not adequately educated to take their place in the labor market. In effect, these young people have been shortchanged by the education system.

Twenty-two high schools failed to award a single Regents diploma in 2003. And among many of the rest the results are nearly as bad. Look at the percentage of students in some of our largest high schools who graduated last year with a Regents diploma: Park West – 3%; Taft – 1%; Thomas Jefferson – 1%; Theodore Roosevelt – 6%; Walton 1%; Prospect Heights – 2%; Washington Irving – 6%. Given that the overwhelming percentage of high school students are black and Latino, the economic and social effects on communities of color are disastrous.

In our recent survey of low and moderate-income New Yorkers, nine out of 10 respondents support quality technical education programs in high schools. A functioning technical and vocational education curriculum is a resource that could help save many young people who are unprepared for most jobs in a changing economy.

I was brought up on the notion that vocational education was something to be avoided. During my youth, it was where poor, mostly black students were pointed as their only hope of earning a living. But the transformation of the labor market from industrial trades to new and emerging technologies has created a new dynamic. We need to invest in a new curriculum that embraces the economy in order to reach those students who want to enter the labor market without a college education.

I’m talking about providing highly sophisticated instruction that leads to well-paid jobs. This is already common in Europe; many students obtain a technical diploma, get a job, and in time seek a university degree.

The Community Service Society has been working vigorously to get technical education on the public agenda. Thanks to pressure brought to bear by Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel, the city recently proposed a new technical/vocational education initiative. Given the magnitude of the problem and the poor state of vocational education currently in our schools, this initiative must be geared to labor market realities and extensive enough to make a real difference.

Judging the Candidates

Our current mayor has said that education is the single most important issue on which he wants to be judged. Let’s ask all the candidates for mayor where they stand on our schools’ problems – the disconnected curriculum, the dropout rate, the lack of resources, the overcrowding.

All young people should be able to get the skills necessary to hold jobs that pay enough to support a family. It is up to us to ensure educational opportunities for those who need them the most. The results will not only strengthen the economic life of our communities. The city’s workforce will be stronger and better able to meet the demands of a rapidly changing global economy.

Tune in to The Urban Agenda TV program hosted by CSS President David R. Jones on CUNY-TV, Channel 75, every third Wednesday of the month at 10 a.m., 3 p.m., and 8 p.m. The program is rebroadcast on the following Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m.

From the New York Amsterdam News
March 24 - 30, 2005