Franklin Schargel’s Blog

As the nation’s white population ages, the first institutions seeing the changing racial makeup of America are the schools. 

 Twelve states are already seeing that change occur.  Reports from Illinois indicate that that state will be the first in the Midwest to be so affected. The rise in minority students in schools can potentially affect everything from how states fund education to graduation rates, test scores and the teaching staff. The state has been working to close gaps in achievement between white and minority students and has pushed for more minority teachers and bilingual teachers, among other measures, in response to the changing racial makeup of schools.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-majority-minority-schools-20140106,0,7219515.story

 

 

America’s unemployment rate continues to improve. It was 10% in the fall of 2009. It has been fluctuating 6.3% and 6.7% for the last couple months. While this is good news, there is a problem regarding youth unemployment. Young people face higher hurdles to and in the job market. They have fewer skills, and  less work experience.

• Unemployment for 18 to 29 year olds is 15.85, more than double the general rate.
• Unemployment for 18 to 29 year old African-Americans is 23..8% For Hispanics it is 16.6%.
• Those with more education do better. Unemployment rates for recent college graduates increased from 3.1% to 8% in 2010. (Young people with no high school diploma had 33% unemployment in 2010).
• High youth unemployment rates predate the recession. In 2000, the general unemployment rate was approximately 4%. For 15 to 24 year olds it was over 9%.
• High youth unemployment is not confined to the United States. For the 33 “developed” countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), combined 2013 youth unemployment was 16%. (It ranged from 7% in Japan to a whopping 58% in Greece.)

This problem has serious financial implications for all of us. According to a newly released report, In This Together: The Hidden Cost of Yung Adult Unemployment, the federal and state governments are deprived of $8.9 billion annually in lost taxes. If we count all those young people not in school and not in the labor force, the number jumps to $25 billion per year

Another recent report, The High Cost of Youth Unemployment, estimates that young workers facing long-term unemployment will lose more than $20 billion in earnings over the next decade. In addition, “youth unemployment”¦.creates an additional cost burden for taxpayers in the form of”¦the need for government-provided health care, increased crime and additional welfare payments.”

But solutions do exist.

But more targeted solutions are also required. Here are three that are receiving attention here or in other parts of the world.

• Create a “youth guarantee” similar to the one adopted by leaders of the European Union. It states that “all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.” This has had success in some countries.
• Greatly expand national service jobs. This should include the possibility of mandatory service for all 18-year-olds in either the military or civilian branches working in health, education or other fields.
• Require that middle and high school programs greatly strengthen their workplace ties through vocational education, apprenticeships, internships, and teaching of job skills.

 

There are many things to worry about in education, STEM or STEAM, the Common Core, Congressional funding, high stakes testing, state and local funding, and the list goes on.  But these problems will still be there when you return from your well-deserved Summer break.

Take the time to read the book(s) you’ve been meaning to read.  Go to the beach. Take that hike.  Go to the movies.  Get reacquainted with your child and spouse.  As the song says, “forget your problems!”

I have just returned from an extended trip to Spain and parts of Portugal. We were told by our guide that “the Spanish economy is in shambles”.  The unemployment rate is between 25-50 percent dependent on where you are in the country.  The more highly educated you are, the greater the unemployment rate.  The son of our host was let go from the Airbus Corporation where he worked as an engineer and wound up in Australia on a year-long work visa.  At the end of the year, he returned to Spain and is now working in Wales.  In a city called Salamanca, we were told that 75 percent of the people of the city over the age of 45 are unemployed. In other words, the Spanish economy is being attacked from both sides.  The young educated population cannot find work and those at the top are unemployed.  My feeling is that once they leave Spain, many will not return. This has implications regarding the birth rate, and the funding of social and medical services.

Our guide in Portugal, a Canadian citizen, said that she was sending her children to Canada in order to get an education because the Portuguese education system is so bad.

I live in New Mexico and have been told that young people are leaving the state because they cannot find work in the areas that they were trained for.

According to a recent Pew Research Center Report, the share of stay-at-home mothers is rising after decades in decline, reaching 29 percent in 2012 after hitting a low of 23 percent in 1999.  Almost half of the stay-at-home mothers are minorities or have no more than a high school education.  More than one third live below the poverty line.

Schools now have an opportunity to reach these stay-at-home mothers and encourage them to read to their children and encourage increased learning.  It is a win-win situation for schools and adds no additional costs.

 

Thirty states that have implemented the common Core State Standards are having difficulty implementing them.  They are having difficulty finding the money to provide training for staff as well as having difficulty developing evaluative standards for teacher and principal performance.

A three year report developed by the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University “Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards: An Overview of States’ Progress and Challenges” found:

• 34 states are struggling to find resources to support all CCSS implementation activities;
• 32 states are struggling to develop teacher evaluation systems that hold teachers and principals accountable for student mastery of CCSS;
• 37 states are struggling to provide teachers with enough high-quality professional development activities to help them implement CCSS;
• 31 states are struggling to provide all math and ELA teachers with state-sponsored professional development activities; and
• Most state education agencies have adequate staff expertise to implement CCSS-related activities, but fewer say they have enough staff and resources.

It appears that implementing the new standards will require additional funding, something that states and the federal government are having a difficult time providing for education.

Where will the next generation of outstanding school leaders emerge? Although principals have a high rate of satisfaction from their jobs, more than 80 percent of teachers and 75 percent of teacher leaders nationally indicate they are not likely to pursue the principal role.

According to the report, Building Pathways, by Chris Bierly and Eileen Shay, school systems need to move from leaving great leadership to chance to strategically building an internal pipeline of new leaders. Bierly and Shay surveyed and interviewed a large sample of principals, assistant principals, teachers, and teacher leaders from a cross section of school districts (varying in size and location) and chief marketing officers across the country. The resulting report outlines the challenges to creating a school leadership pipeline and offers a road map for system leaders to establish new standards, practices, and management structures to meet the challenges.

This report contradicts existing evidence. The professional life expectancy of school leaders is extremely low. In the inner cities, it is about eighteen months. Whatever the evidence, we need to create some system to train new school leaders.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are out of 3,000 counties  more than 900 are where people 65 and olter are now outnumbering children.  Seniors in some 33 counties hold a 2 to 1 advantage.

The combination of rising life expectancy and falling overall fertility in the US means that by the middle of the century, America will join Japan, Italy, France, Spain and other areas around the world where people  65 and older outnumber those 17 and under.

Since many seniors are on fixed income, older residents need to be supportive of schools. Seniors will give priority to health-care and police protection over education.  Seniors also tend to be conservative voters and vote against any tax increase.The Census Bureau says that the higher the proportion of seniors in a community, the lower the support for public school funding. In addition, while seniors will continue to be overwhelming white, the US Department of Education projects that white students will be a minority in the school-age population by 2030.  Because these seniors vote, school budgets need to have senior votes.  It is imperative that schools and districts, engage these seniors.