[StBernard] Grads lack ability at jobs

[Westley Annis]

Industry claims schools behind 
By WILL SENTELL <mailto:wsentell at theadvocate.com> 
Advocate Capitol News Bureau 
Published: Apr 23, 2007

Large and small firms in Louisiana desperately need better-trained
high-school graduates, businessmen recently told state educators.

"My shipbuilders don't carry drawings any more," said Woody Oge, site
director for Northrop Grumman Corp. Ship Systems in New Orleans. "They go to
computers."

Oge's company is one of the largest private employers in the state. It used
to be part of the Avondale shipyards and does work for the U.S. Navy and
others.

Michael Mitternight, president of a commercial air-conditioner repair
service that employs 10 workers in Metairie, echoed Oge's view.

The days of such firms operating out of the back of a repair truck are gone,
Mitternight said.

Required skills have jumped dramatically, he said, and repair workers need
to know calculus. But those same employees are paid salaries of up to
$60,000 per year, said Mitternight, who is president of Factory Service
Agency Inc.

Both comments were made last week to the High School Redesign Committee of
the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The board sets policies for about 700,000 public school students statewide.
It is in the early stages of implementing sweeping changes in public high
schools, including a tougher curriculum, to answer concerns of Oge,
Mitternight and other employers.

The top worry for about 3,500 firms statewide is the lack of well-trained
workers, said Brigitte Nieland, director of education for the Louisiana
Association of Business and Industry.

Stephanie Desselle, senior vice-president of the Council for a Better
Louisiana, said about 72,000 students in grades seven through 12 dropped out
of school in the past four years.

"Where are those kids going?" Desselle asked. "We have reached a crisis
level."

The high-school changes stem from a two-year study by a panel named by Gov.
Kathleen Blanco. About 190,000 students attend public high schools in
Louisiana.

Comments by Oge and Mitternight reflect a widespread view voiced to the
panel by employers in the state: Many high-school gradates are ill-prepared
for 21st century jobs.

One of the aims of Blanco's commission is to boost the number of classes
that prepare students for careers as welders and in other fields, including
training that allows them to win two- or four-year college degrees in less
time.

Reworking high schools that prepare potential employees is overdue for the
state and businesses, Oge said.

"This is a major issue," he said.

Oge said the success of his company depends on finding skilled workers.

Without those skilled employees, he said, corporate America will pull the
plug on the giant employer.

The need for better-trained workers is especially great, Oge said, since 60
percent of plant employees will retire in the next 10 years.

Oge also said the state needs a solid pipeline for students between high
school and community and technical schools, which offer two-year programs.

Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, president of the board, said the state has to
convince families that traditional four-year colleges are not the answer for
every high-school graduate.

"We aren't going to change the minds of the students until we change the
minds of the parents," Johnson said.

Oge said his shipyard already employs 57 instructors to train workers, who
he said can collect salaries of up to $50,000 after two years of training.

Even apprentices at the shipyard need calculus skills, he said.

One of the key aims of the changes in public high schools is to get most
students on a preferred track of classes designed to be more challenging
than the current list of required courses, according to the panel's stated
goals.

More than four in 10 ninth-graders who began high school in August will fail
to earn a diploma by 2010, according to the state education statistics.

Leslie Jacobs of New Orleans, vice-president of the board, said the aim is
to trim Louisiana's high-school dropout rate by 50 percent in the next
decade.