Focus on vocational training
US President Obama has proposed that more money be allocated to train students for skills in jobs that are in demand.
UNITED STATES (US) President Barack Obama recently proposed substantial new spending with a US$69.8 bil (RM213.5 bil) education budget heavily focused on boosting vocational training, both at the high-school and college level.
Overall, Obama asked for an increase of 2.5%, or US$1.7 bil (RM5.2 mil) in discretionary spending on education as part of his fiscal 2013 budget proposal to Congress.
The centrepiece of the education budget was an US$8 bil (RM24.5 bil) Community College to Career Fund, which aims to train two million workers for jobs in fields such as high-tech manufacturing, clean energy and healthcare.
The initiative would encourage partnerships between two-year colleges and local businesses to identify in-demand skills and develop courses that help build them. It would also finance online and in-person training for up to 600,000 aspiring entrepreneurs.
The fund would require congressional approval, which is far from assured. In 2009, when Obama called for an aggressive US$12 bil (RM36.7 bil) investment in community colleges, Congress allocated just $US2 bil (RM6.12 bil)
This time, Congressional Republicans vowed as soon as the budget was released to block big spending on new programmes, calling for a focus on deficit reduction instead.
Obama also repeated his call for colleges to present more transparent information about tuition costs, average student loan debt, graduation rates and how well graduates fare in the job market.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the college to career initiative relied on community colleges developing strong relationships with local employers, who could help design courses and degree programmes to “train workers for skills that businesses are looking for right now.” The businesses would also be expected to offer apprenticeships.
Duncan cited as models community colleges in Nevada that are further increasing their nursing programmes to meet local demand, and schools in Florida that cater to a growing fashion industry.
“It’s really important that this is not driven by us in Washington,” but be based on local business needs, Duncan said.
In primary and secondary schools, Obama is pushing to expand his Race to the Top initiative. The competitive grant programme wants states to take dramatic steps such as wiping out traditional teacher tenure protections so that administrators have more flexibility to fire teachers who are performing poorly.
The new budget has called for more cash to be pumped in for the Race to the Top initiative. Some of that money would be set aside for individual school districts, rather than states. And some would be directed to programmes that serve the nation’s youngest students, by getting low-income and threeand four-year-olds ready for kindergarten.
Obama also asked for improvements in vocational and technical education at the secondary-school level. He proposed spending a further US$1 bil (RM3.1 bil) on high-school “career academies” that train future workers in industries such as health care or information technology.
“Until recently, vocational education wasn’t popular because there was a worry that poor or minority kids were being pushed into that track and a feeling that college should be for everyone,” said Michael Petrilli, an educational policy analyst with the Fordham Institute. — Reuters