editorials

Good start to the massive reform needed. Post secondary institutions need to heed this advice and reinvent themselves. Whining for more education dollars is not reinventing. It will be interesting which will step up and be leaders.

so the Star-Tribune (aka the Chamber of Commerce) wants us to adopt the German or British models of education. Think long and hard before you do that, folks. A lot of our growth comes from the creativity in the arts and social sciences that is not a response to the job-of-the-moment.

Once upon a time there was a thing called on the job training where employers would train their employees in the skills necessary. Now let's just pass this expense on to taxpayers for public schools and citizens for college tuition. Oh, and let's not talk about the changes to curriculum to meet these demands.

After thoroughly messing up our public schools with their reform schemes, wasteful accountability bureaucracies, endless paperwork, standardized tests (which actually lower standards) and mismanagement by outsider know-it-all types who don't really under education, these same "reform" forces are now turning their sights on our higher education system. We currently have the best universities in the world, but I know these folks will find a way to mess them up. They see an opportunity to make money off of their so-called "reforms." If reform is going to work, it needs to come from within--not from crackpots at the Chamber of Commerce or the Lumina foundation.

"The chamber also recognizes that its members bear some responsibility for building the state's workforce; business must be actively involved in seeing that more Minnesotans receive training to secure good jobs."

It's great that they recognize the private business sector needs to play a role. Now, will they admit that they also need to start paying wages that reflect those added skill sets and custom-tailored education to fit their business needs? Will they finally return to paying for at least a fraction, if not a large portion of the costs of training of their workforce?

So. Should we divert resources from liberal arts pursuits into vocational pursuits? Should we downsize the U and put more resources into purely technical colleges? Raise tuition for students who pursue non-vocational majors, and lower it for those who pursue technical or scientific studies? What exactly is being recommended here? You need to provide more than a hand-wavy exhortation that "Post-secondary rates, skills must be a match for the job market."

The state of Minnesota already has the best system of two-year colleges in the U.S. We don't need the University of Minnesota to build more colleges above shopping malls (this was Pawlenty's pet project and political gift to Rochester). The two-year schools innovate and turn on a dime whenever needed. No need to reinvent the wheel; just fund what's already working. The education I received in a Minnesota CC was far superior to the education I received when I transferred to a prestigious four-year college. I wouldn't be where I am today without the patience and dedication of the instructors at my hometown CC.