School districts can help high schoolers with IP65
Which really bothers you? Maybe it’s that Oregon’s high school graduation rate is one of the lowest in the nation, where one in four students doesn’t finish on time.
Or maybe it’s that there are good, $35-an-hour jobs in our community going vacant due to a lack of skilled workers.
What about the Oregon high school students trying to save money on college by taking early college credit classes but who have a hard time getting into them, even though elsewhere earning half a year’s college credit during high school is fairly standard?
As a retired high school teacher who truly cared about my students, all three get me in the gut. This is happening because of deep cuts over many years, and our high schoolers are suffering.
But there’s a way to turn things around. A proposed ballot measure, Initiative Petition 65, would provide resources for vocational and career technical education, college readiness and dropout prevention in our high schools.
By and large, Oregon high schoolers go without comprehensive or modern career vocational education that lets them pick up real job skills and connects them with post-high school training programs.
One reason Oregon’s graduation rate lags the national average is that other states have more comprehensive vocational offerings. Students can learn medical biotechnology, introduction to speech pathology and audiology, GIS systems, engineering, trades like carpentry and other in-demand skills so they can go after good jobs and post-secondary educational opportunities. We used to have more vocational education classes.
When students take two or more vocational or technical career classes, they are more likely to graduate by about 15 percentage points over our current dismal overall graduation rate of 74 percent.
Not enough of our high schoolers have access to early college credit classes — meaning they don’t get a chance to earn credits for free or a jump start building self-confidence needed for college success.
Oregon’s high schools are failing too many, yet we know how to make it much better. We can turn our high schools around by passing IP65 in November.
IP65 will restore what works: Vocational and career technical classes, college readiness classes and dropout prevention.
Every school district in Oregon will get funds for these programs. They may spend IP65 dollars on equipment and hire instructors to teach the vocational classes that make the most sense for their community.
What students get is invaluable: hands-on experience, preparing them for jobs and further training or college.
IP65 doesn’t raise taxes or take money away from existing programs. Instead, it directs new revenue to high schools. Each school district decides whether to use IP65 dollars and how much to spend in which areas.
Let’s do this! Students only have one shot at a high school education. We’re depending on them to take care of us in the not too distant future. Please vote “yes” for high schools!
Kathy Sansone of Salem is a retired teacher from Salem-Keizer School District. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.