Testimony of Randi Weingarten before the City Council Civil Service and Labor Committees on Pathways to Trade Professions: Oct. 30, 2007
Oct 30, 2007 4:13 PM
Thank you, Chairman Addabbo.
I’m appearing today not only in my capacity as president of the United Federation of Teachers but as chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee. Both the teachers union and the city’s municipal workforce have a stake in seeing that professional development and training programs are in place from the middle schools and the high schools on and continuing throughout an individual’s work life.
I am accompanied today by Michael Mulgrew the UFT Vice President for Career and Technical High Schools, who will also offer testimony.
I’m going to restrict my remarks on workforce development to looking at the city’s Career and Technical Education programs and what the union believes these programs need to succeed.
In brief, they’re a real success story, but the city treats them as unloved step-children.
Mr. Mulgrew will then present the union’s perspective on how to tighten the fit between how the schools function and what the city’s evolving workforce needs.
If the role of schools is to prepare the next generation for citizenship as well as to see that they become productive members of society, then our students should be preparing not so much for a job as a living-wage income from a good, skilled job. Because poverty and democratic citizenship don’t mix.
Career and technical education, what used to be called vocational education, is a city program that for the most part works well. We know it works because my members staff its schools and see the results.
Our members teach skills in dozens of fields, including automotive repair, building trades, health care, transit technology, medical technology, law and justice, graphic illustration and graphic design, information technology, culinary arts and others. The union also works closely with the Advisory Council for CTE for the NYC Department of Education to ensure that school programs align with the greater New York area’s workforce needs. The programs would work even better if the DOE backed them better.
We know the data show that students who go to CTE schools have higher attendance rates, higher Regents pass rates, higher graduation rates, higher rates of college enrollment and significantly lower dropout rates than the city average. CTE turns failing schools into successful ones. All it needs is consistent backing from the city. Instead we find fewer students enrolling, not more.
Merryl Tisch, a member of the state Board of Regents, warned a UFT conference last spring that the Contract for Excellence negotiated between the state and the city shows “no mention of any expansion of CTE programs for the city.”
That’s all the more reason why I want to congratulate City Comptroller William Thompson for his frank and fair assessment last week of the DOE’s CTE caretaking. I second his remarks that the DOE has “relegated these nuts and bolts high schools to second-class status in spite of their proven record.” When it comes to the city’s commitment, “the jury is still out since [the DOE] just went through their third reorganization," as a Thompson spokesperson said, and it looks to be a hung jury.
Why shortchange schools such as Automotive High School in Brooklyn, which is doing wonders in giving job training and a first-rate academic education, too, to young people? These schools have dual vocational and academic missions and soldier on despite the fact that just 11 percent of all CTE programs are state approved.
Thompson found that funding for CTE high schools was at a lower level than that granted for general academic high schools. That funding disparity compromises the ability of the DOE to offer programs that meet the needs of industry.
He found federal vocational education funding for CTE insufficient.
He found the DOE’s new Fair Student Funding formula did not meet these schools’ special needs.
He found principals reporting little direct assistance from the DOE in trying to develop critical partnerships with private industry. He called the difficulty the schools have in attracting qualified CTE teachers “their greatest challenge.”
He found that the DOE had recently reduced the number of staff in its Central Administration assigned to CTE from 27 to 10.
That’s a pretty damning bill of indictment. The mayor’s response to the press: Scores are up, so how bad could the schools be?
That’s the point. It’s not that the schools are bad, but that the central administration is leaving them to sink or swim.
Last May, the UFT sponsored a day-long “Creating Futures Forum” conference. We brought together representatives from government, labor, industry and education to discuss the future of the city’s economy and how career and technical education can help provide the work force for today’s changing employment needs. The problem in a nutshell: how to align industry, labor and education so we engage as partners, not pass like ships in the night.
Among the participants was Councilman Addabbo, and I want to thank you again for your participation.
So, what do our kids need? They need access to decent jobs. More than 40 years ago, the great civil rights leader Bayard Rustin said that the best anti-poverty program is a good job. That’s still true today. But the number of unskilled jobs keeps shrinking even as the things industry expects from our kids is changing. CTE creates an environment where students learn life skills. They learn to dress appropriately, to come to work on time. They learn to master literacy and math skills.
Society benefits, too, when career and technical education works for today’s young people. A recent Columbia University study showed that halving the national dropout rate would save $127,000 over the lifetime of every additional high school graduate. Savings would come from additional tax revenues and reduced public health and criminal justice costs. Turning out more highly skilled workers means economic development benefits for the city.
Finally, career and technical schooling isn’t just education’s past; it’s education’s future, too. Not only should the high schools be better funded and backed by Tweed, there ought to be more technology programs in middle schools leading up to CTE in high schools.
There ought to be a state-city partnership committed to reinvigorating CTE.
There needs to be a tighter fit between economic development agencies and education.
There should be more early internship programs.
There ought to be a fit between incubator industry projects and jobs for students and skilled young people.
That’s just a short list.
Our culture has a saying: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When it comes to our CTE high schools, the saying should be, if it’s working well, don’t break it. Or, to quote, Hippocrates, “First, do no harm.”
Thank you.
