Guests: Chris Walker and Eric Daniels. Topics: California public education, career technical educational as well as college track in high school, politics of education. Chris Walker and Eric Daniels were our guests today to discuss the state of California public education and what it means for the California space workforce as well as other technology and skilled jobs in the state. If you are not living in California, don't think you are immune from these problems because as goes California, so goes the rest of the nation. This is a very important program that addresses a few of the many problems associated with public education but specifically how it will impact the 370,000 space jobs within California. As a way of introduction to this problem, our guests pointed out that in California, $65 billion is spent on public education. We have a high school drop out rate that goes into the 40% range, a drop out rate for the California State University program at 43% and within the UC system it is about 20%. Listen to the details behind these statistics. As you will hear, the problems start around 6th grade and increase in 7th and 8th grade, even before high school starts which is 9th grade in California. Much of our discussion was focused on the need for establishing CTE, Career Technical Education (vocational education), back in the schools so that students who do not want the UC track have an option and reason to stay in high school. As you will hear, these technical jobs are not the same as what many of us knew as vocational jobs way back in the year as today, CTE requires math and more. These are highly skilled and technical jobs and the need is for 7 to 9 career techs to support each scientist or engineer in a modern technology/space work assignment. Our guests explained the politics behind moving to a dual track high school program offering the CTE path along side the UC college prep track. As we learned, everyone pays lip service to supporting CTE but when it comes time for voting on it in the legislature or getting it out of the Appropriations Committee, it falls flat on its face to surrender to politics as usual. Many listeners emailed in questions ranging from budget cut issues, to priorities for what is taught in school, to questions about the teachers union, and even illegal immigration in the large school districts across the state. One program that was mentioned was the Get Real Program which we can all join to show support for what our guests were talking about today regarding CTE. You can find out more about the Get Real program and join it by visiting www.getrealca.com/. Several listeners asked about the opportunity to use retired experts in math, science, engineering, and other skilled professions in the schools and this led us to a discussion of the gray work force, getting through the credential requirement process and more. Some listeners sent in questions asking about the funding cuts and questioning the amount of money available for teaching the needed programs in our school system. Both of our guests pointed out that with $65 billion being spent on public education in California, the issue was not insufficient funding but priorities. That is, how the money is allocated and spent and clearly the priorities do not include the classes and programs needed for the space workforce but also the other technical jobs needed in California. As an example, our guests pointed out that in California there is a need for about 50,000 highly trained and skilled automotive jobs, 206,000 healthcare jobs, and over 700,000 skilled construction and related jobs. Our guests pointed out California Senate Bill 381 which may get lost in the Appropriations Committee. If you are in California and are interested in this bill, check it out, contact your member of the legislature or those on the Appropriations Committee. Or contact Karen Bass as suggested by our guests. Ms. Bass is the Speaker of the California Assembly and her website is http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Speaker. If you want more information on the California Space Authority, please visit www.californiaspaceauthority.org/. Also, Chris Walker has a 29 slide Power Point presentation on CTE titled "CTE In California." If you would like a copy of this presentation, please send me an email and I will send it to you with his permission. If you have questions or comments for either or both Chris Walker and Eric Daniels, please send them to me and I will forward them to our guests.
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The Space Show
