st. paul

Why would it cost $20,000 to teach a guy how to drive a truck? That's equivalent of a full year's tuition at a good college or university? Oh well, it was OPM, other people's money.

They didn't have enough money to track job placement but they had money for a photo op. Nice, real nice. How much would it cost to call 46 people and see if they are working?

dentester; that was the total cost of the program, not the cost for each participant.

But this is typical government. Let's jsut spend but not measure success. Question: What private business would operate this way? One that would not be in business very long.

How many city employees went to the Press conference? How many employee hours were dedicated to getting it set up? It would seem like someone could have called the guys back to see if the training helped to get them ANY kind of job, or improved the one that they had. Looks like St Paul's mayor is trying to qualify to be the Mayor of Minneapolis some day. Typical government, don't measure the results to see if they did something right, or if it was wildly successful, to do it again. Just come out to pat themselves on the back.

dentester - "Why would it cost $20,000 to teach a guy how to drive a truck? That's equivalent of a full year's tuition at a good college or university? Oh well, it was OPM, other people's money." If you don't own a truck you have to rent it and you can't just rent it for an hour. You have to rent more than one truck if you have a class of students. You have to pay the instructor and you need more than just one to accompany them on the road if you have a class of students. You also need a classroom and A/V equipment. WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS THAT THEY SPENT ALL OF THAT MONEY TO TRAIN THE STUDENTS AND DIDN'T GIVE THEM A POST CARD THAT SAID "HEY! I GOT THE JOB!!!"

Many trucking companies will teach you how to drive a truck, help you with you license and even finance your truck if you are committed and agree to stay employed with them for a period of time. The government has no business here.

It is really too bad that the City couldn't have figured out how to track the end result. I like jcinmn's idea of a postcard.

I see a lot of uninformed opinions here. First, a CDL is not an easy thing. Written and driving tests? Let's see you try. Second, the training given was soley for a Class B, which means they can't pull traliers over 10,001 lbs. It's worthless to take that license for doing "over the road" work unless they pay for an additional test out of their own pocket. Third, I want you to look at everything in your apartment/house/town house/etc. Every single item there was delivered somehow by a truck. Sure, your Chinese stuff may have delivered by boat, or some stuff by rail, but to your domain/store? A truck. A CDL driver. CDL training creates jobs.