Walt Gardner: U.S. needs to learn that college isn't for everyone

With the end of the spring semester rapidly approaching, the commentariat is up in arms about the appalling high school graduation rate in the United States. What's specifically set them off is the huge disparity between the data provided by each state and the data calculated by the U.S. Department of Education.

There's every good reason to raise an eyebrow when Mississippi, for example, reports that 87 percent of its students graduate on time and the Education Department finds that only 63.3 percent do so. But even if a standardized system of calculations were adopted nationwide, the fundamental problem of dropouts would not disappear by a long shot. That's because we've unwittingly created a situation that exists in no other industrialized country in the world.

By requiring virtually all students to take courses specifically designed for the college-bound, we unavoidably set the stage for failure. The truth is that not all students have the desire or the ability to pursue a four-year degree. And when they see little or no connection between what they're forced to study and their future plans or interests, they either act out or drop out. In either case, they are effectively written off.

This disconnect has long plagued high schools in the United States, but it is only within the past few years that the full implications have become obvious.

According to Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the only jobs that will be safe in the next two decades will be those that can't be delivered offshore electronically. As a result, plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics, for example, will be earning a comfortable living, while their academically educated counterparts will be at risk of having their jobs terminated.

It makes little sense, therefore, to persist in the comforting delusion that only a college degree guarantees success. It never has, but at least in the past a case could be made that without a sheepskin a student was probably dead in the water. But if forecasters are correct, we need to take a closer look at vocational education, which is now called career and technical education.

Historically, the first education law passed in the United States required masters to teach their apprentices academic as well as vocational knowledge and skills. The issue was revived in the early 1900s, when the United States struggled to meet the labor needs caused by an economy shifting from agriculture to industry.

Unfortunately, the obsession today with academics has blinded Congress to the need for federal funds to states and local school districts for work-related classes, programs, equipment and training.

In July 2006, for example, Congress reauthorized the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act for a paltry $1.3 billion annually, with further cuts highly likely.

The prospects are particularly disheartening because career and technical education is costly. Sophisticated equipment is expensive, and instructors are hard to find because they can easily make more money in the private sector.

Beyond funding, however, is the need to re-examine our attitude about vocational education. It deserves the same recognition, respect and value that we reflexively accord academic education.

Our competitors abroad have long understood this importance. In fact, they routinely sort out students into academic and vocational tracks without any compunction.

Singapore undertakes this differentiation with its primary-school leaving exam, and Finland does so based on grades at the end of the ninth grade. In both cases, there is no stigma attached to the vocational curriculum. It is correctly seen as a viable alternative.

Not surprisingly, both countries have remarkably high graduation rates and enjoy a well-deserved reputation for the uniform quality of their K-12 schools. This is seen in their rankings on tests of international competition, where their students consistently outperform ours in math and science, while at the same time their vocational students are respected for their demonstrated ability in their specialized fields.

Not to be undone, China in the early 1990s overhauled its schools to place greater emphasis on job training. In 2001, the government counted 17,770 vocational high schools and specialized skill schools. But because China's students have never taken part in the closely watched tests of international competition, it's impossible to know how successful the curricular changes have been.

For the United States, the time has come to disabuse itself of the comforting delusion that college is for everyone. It is merely the most convenient place to learn how to learn. If we don't learn that lesson, we'll continue to lose the talent that so many dropouts possess.