Building Community Through Educational Partnerships

By Jon Sharkey

If we are to improve California's educational system, we must involve the entire community, parents, the public, and the private sector.

If we are to return our education system to a position of pre-eminence, we must improve the total system from infrastructure to programs. This is not an effort that can -- or should -- be undertaken by the state alone. Success can only be achieved by a total effort involving the public and private sectors as well as the community.

The major disappointment in the Governor's program was his abandonment of a parental involvement component. Clearly, the students who do the best in school are the ones who have the greatest support at home. Voluntary contracts with parents who promise to be a part of their child's education are a way of encouraging participation. Most parents in fact want to participate in the life of their schools. They've just never been asked.

Where such contracts have been tried (such as in Simi Valley and El Rio), they have been successful both for the schools and for the parents. Parental participation improves performance in the classroom and, since the Governor is measuring performance, the rewards for such efforts can be substantial.

More intractable are the problems of programs and infrastructure. Classes are now being taught in temporary structures that have become permanent fixtures on some campuses. Though not old enough to qualify as historical landmarks, most of these trailer classrooms are too old to be allowed in a mobile home park. It is time to attack the problem of classroom space with some vigor, if not ferocity.

There is also a clear-cut problem with the offering of advanced placement (AP) classes. These college-level courses offer the opportunity for upper echelon students to get a jump on the competition for prime placement positions in our institutes of higher learning by counting as more than the standard 4.0 gradepoint. The reality is that most of these courses are being offered at the more affluent high schools, which means that urban and poorer rural students, many of whom are people of color, don't even have the opportunity to compete for college placement with their more well-heeled peers.

Both the infrastructure and AP problems are easy to solve: all it takes is money. Finding the money is the hard part. For a solution we can look to Santa Clara County where the Silicon Valley Initiative provides a possible model

When the fast-growing high-tech firms of the Silicon Valley got together to examine problems current and pending, the number one concern of this group of high powered businesspeople was finding enough people with enough education to be employable. The result was the creation of several public/private partnerships to improve academic performance and provide career training for kids in school.

The Silicon Valley Initiative is a first step that indicates how far we have to go, but it is a step in the right direction. The private sector should be encouraged to participate in the improvement of our educational system. After all, it is in the private sector that most of today's students will work. Any private entity that invests in our school system, whether it be on an academic level or in bricks and mortar should be rewarded with a clear and significant tax credit. We must be willing to pay those who are willing to invest in the future of our society.

Nor should our concern be only with those who are college or high-tech bound. There is a critical need for young people in the skilled trades. The average skilled machinist is now about fifty-five years old. This is not a job that is going away. In fact, with advancing technology the qualifications and training required indicate that those who have the skills will be in ever-increasing demand. If these skilled performers are not coming from our own schools, they will either have to come from somewhere else or the work will have to go somewhere else.

It is nothing less than critical that our education system gets together with industry and the trade unions to develop vigorous apprenticeship programs for those whose future may not be in college, but who have the ability and desire to craft a career that is as integral to our future well-being as any member of the so-called "new economy".

Years of neglect cannot be overcome overnight. Nor can we afford to sit back assuming the current reforms are enough. If we are to give our children the tools they will need to maintain California's prosperity for the next generation, we must all participate. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind.