More Insults to Arizona Workers
More Insults to Arizona Workers
Date: Saturday, August 23, 2003 1:24 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
Without a doubt, Arizona's education system is in severe crisis. Budget
deficits are forcing cuts on education while at the same time our high
school dropout rate is one of the highest in the nation. Teacher's are
being fired while at the same time our population is exploding.
The problem with the article below is that they stetch that logic to
say that there aren't enough educated people in Arizona to "compete in
a knowledge-based economy". Most high-tech workers came to Arizona from
out of state, and many of them are now unemployed. Currently there is a
surplus of highly educated people looking for work, and this article is
a direct insult to those that can't find decent jobs.
Engineers are having to look for work at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack. High
school graduates will continue to lose their jobs to the college grads
desperate for work and that's a problem our blind governor Napolitano
can't seem to understand.
This article follows one that appeared in the Mesa Tribune that
contained similar insults to unemployed Arizonans.
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/fri/30822COLLEGECENSUS.html
Friday, 22 August 2003
Arizona is lagging in educated workers
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau could have implications for
Arizona businesses looking for educated workers.
In 1990, 20.3 percent of all Arizonans age 25 or older had at least a
bachelor's degree, equal to the national average. But a decade later,
while the figure for Arizona had increased to 23.5 percent, it did not
keep pace with the national average, which had gone up to 24.4 percent.
Similar declines occurred in other levels of educational attainment.
In 1990, for example, the state's percentage of people who graduated
from high school was 3.5 points above the national average. Ten years
later, that lead had slipped to 0.6 percent. Similarly, the 0.2 percent
gap between Arizonans with advanced degrees and the national average in
1990 had increased to 0.5 percent by 2000.
Chris Herstam, president of the Arizona Board of Regents, said some of
the decline in educational achievement may be due to Arizona's location
along the nation's southern border. He said the steady flow of
immigrants, most of whom are not well-educated, could skew the figures
somewhat.
But Herstam said that whatever the cause, it still leaves the state
with the problem of creating an educated work force.
Farrell Quinlan, communications director for the Arizona Chamber of
Commerce, agreed. He said having enough people with high school,
college and advanced degrees is a major worry for the business
community.
"There is a concern K-12 may not be preparing students for higher
education and technical degrees," he said.
Gov. Janet Napolitano said the statistics back her contention that
education needs to be the top priority for the state - and for the
available funds.
And State Schools Superintendent Tom Horne, while questioning whether
the figures are statistically significant, said the numbers do point up
a larger national problem. He said two-thirds of all jobs require
advanced reading skills.
"If we don't do a better job of training our high-school graduates, by
2006 we'll have 20 million jobs that can't be filled by American
workers," he said. And those jobs, he said, may end up going overseas.
Herstam said the census statistics mirror other studies he has seen.
"At the very time we are trying to produce more adults in this state
with college degrees to compete in a knowledge-based economy, we see
that, compared to other states, they are growing their college-educated
population faster than ours," he said. "And that's alarming."
But the problem isn't confined to the question of getting Arizonans to
attend college. Herstam said it is equally possible that the state's
dropout rate - by some measures the highest in the nation - reduces the
number of residents who are eligible for admission. Napolitano
acknowledges the problem.
"The way to increase the number going to college is to increase
high-school graduation," she said. And that, she added, is directly
linked to making sure that children learn to read in the early grades.
Herstam said even if the cause of the state's lagging education is the
high immigrant population, he said he believes the university system
can do more to increase the percentage of college graduates and prepare
them for the jobs of the future.
"We are urging all three of our public universities to aggressively
recruit freshmen that may not be inclined to pursue a college
education," he said.
The University of Arizona, for example, has pledged to be a
Hispanic-serving institution in the next decade.
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