Tell me again-why college?

 Tell me again why college?

Maryland has launched a big push for college and career readiness.  They really mean college readiness.  That’s easy to see by the courses they require to get a diploma for all students. For many kids with disabilities, traditional academic degrees are not an option.  The number of eighteen year olds in our country is way down.  Colleges and universities need to make their budgets work so they have started offering “ego” degrees.  Your kid gets to go to a big name school, buy the sweatshirt, live in the dorms and you get to pay the full tuition and get bragging rights to say your kid is away at the “University of Big Name”.  The students learn “life skills”, get to  live in the dorms with a counselor and complain about the dining hall food, just like their contemporaries.  When they finish the two-year program they leave with a certificate which will qualify them to do what?

Some students with disabilities can do the traditional academic work.  They can spend 4-5 years studying for an undergraduate degree in psychology, criminal justice, creative writing or maybe family and consumer sciences.  If they complete the program, they will graduate with a bachelor’s degree and a chunk of student debt.  And they will be qualified to do exactly which job?

Then there is the real world.  Over 70% of US households hire people to do construction and maintenance work in their homes.  There is a huge shortage of such workers.  In our economy where there is shortage, high prices follow.  Back in the 1800’s, when disease linked to sanitation was on the rise, plumbers were honored as high or higher than physicians.  Have you hired a plumber recently? They are still among the highest paid trades.  

In the 1900’s tradespeople were so proud of their work that they often signed their names.  In the early 20^th century, vocational education teachers needed 5 years in the trade and a 90-hour course in how to teach kids.  Then big push academics switched the expectations to require a bachelor’s degree and the entire program became less hands on and more eyes on books.  

There is a huge shortage of skilled trades people.  Did I mention shortages drive up wages?  Instead of algebra 2, we should require personal finance and financial business skills and maybe young adults wouldn’t be so easy to fleece.  We should be teaching written communication skills in an era when we communicate  in code by text.  And most of all, we should be teaching the trades.  Contractors are begging for trained staff.  Homeowners are always on the search for a dependable skilled home maintenance person.  Rewards start easily in the upper five figures and no student debt.

Tell me again why we all need to go to college?

Put your money where your values are!

 Put your money where your values are!

Maryland has a 1.4 billion dollar deficit.  So, some programs will need to be cut.  And, even with the deficit, some programs are getting an increase.  Currently there are 4,000 adults with disabilities who qualify for adult services but who are not receiving those services because there is no money.  If there are so many people waiting for service, why is the Governor proposing to cut the funds for those services even more. 

 In the budget presented to the legislature, the Governor is proposing a cut of 150 million to disability services. Currently it appears that the most significant cuts will be for those individuals with the most severe disabilities.  In the 2025 budget, Governor Moore proposed a 200 million dollar cut, but advocates were able to convince the legislature to restore about 97% of those cuts.  However, the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) lost a rate increase for providers.  These are individuals who care for the most vulnerable in our population.  We all get very angry when there is a case of a person with disabilities not receiving the attention and care he/she needs and becomes injured.  Everyone jumps and shouts, including members of the legislature, about how awful it is. It is all well and good after the injury to complain about the agency not doing its job.  But what is the job of the legislature to provide the funds to secure the appropriate adequately paid staff.

Support for DDA funding is bipartisan but Republicans are also using the full funding of DDA as a reason to cut the funding for the Blueprint for Education.  The Governor also wants to increase the per pupil state aide to school districts from around $9,500 per student to around $11,500 per student to help compensate school districts for the loss of funds due to decreased enrollment.  If schools are dealing with fewer kids, why do they need more money? And why is DDA with a waiting list that is YEARS long being cut when they have MORE people needing service?  And if members of the legislature all agree that serving these very vulnerable citizens is a top priority, how does that value align with cutting funds? Perhaps they talk big but need to put the money where they say their values are.

Who Needs Teachers When You Have AI?

 No Teachers Needed, AI is doing the job

Everyone knows that AI can never replace teachers-Right!  Well, seems that could be wrong.  Alpha is a chain of private schools that educates kids from grades k-12 using AI to teach core subjects in just two hours a day.  No teachers needed.

The school does not have homework or textbooks.  Kids just sit in front of laptops.  A typical day begins around 9.  There is a group activity that introduces the life skill of the day.  Students then get headsets or VR sets to enjoy the day’s curriculum which will include 30-minute sessions in math, science, social studies and language arts.  They will also have 20 minutes in something like test taking skills.   The rest of the day is spent in activity workshops in skills such as financial literacy or problem solving.

Alpha was founded by a tech billionaire, MacKenzie Price. Alpha has received high praise from Secretary of Education McMahon.  Some parents have embraced the approach.  But the second school that opened faced some serious blow-back from parents.  Many parents complained that the program was creating significant anxiety in their children.  School officials say much has changed as they learn to do better.  However, Alpha is not allowing ANY independent evaluation of either the model or of the results.  The school says it has hired “world-renowned learning scientists, advanced degreed academic experts and researchers” to assess outcomes.  They insist that students learn two-times faster with this method.   The school has paused any “non-essential” visitors from the outside because the model is so ground-breaking that they could not field all of the requests.  The model has expanded to multiple states and cities.  Some of the schools have a selective focus such as sports or high academic achievement.  Tuition can range up to 75,000 depending on the location.  Children have access to human teachers for some intervention skills including diverse learners.  High achievement can be rewarded with simple prizes but also trips to Europe.  Tuition mostly covers the cost of prizes but families are sometimes asked to contribute to the trips. The teachers are called guides and are NOT required to have any training in education, only a bachelor’s degree in any field.  All guides need to sign an NDA. Guides are directly told they are not to teach. Instead kids are directed to Google or YouTube to discover answers to questions.

It’s all about the metrics.   When these kids grow up, how will they name their favorite teacher-a machine?  Does that matter?