ICCSD Just Spent $6,800 on the Liberty High Weight Room Sound System

Caption: Steve Miller, former City High shop teacher.

The Iowa City Community School District spent $6,800 on the Liberty High weight room sound system but still has limited and off campus (hard to get to) vocational education courses, which are required by state law (beginning in junior high). The district has lots of advanced placement (AP) courses, none of which are required by state law. A high score on an AP test, which costs around $100 to take, may earn you some college credit.

What about those students who aren't going on to college, either because they can't afford to or it's not their thing? Shouldn't more, on-site vocational education classes be available to them so they can earn a living out of high school?

Vocational education wouldn't just help non-college bound students. It would help the rest of us too.

Have you noticed how difficult it is to get a plumber to come to your house for an emergency repair on short notice? Is there a qualified watchmaker still working in Iowa City? Plumbers are overwhelmed with jobs and the only qualified watchmaker I know of is either retired or nearing retirement.

We need skilled trades people and craft persons to take over when the plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, and watchmakers of today retire.

All children should have choices and if those choices aren’t provided at home, they should be provided at school. Not at another institution like Kirkwood, but within the school building they travel to each day; that is, in a classroom near enough to meet a five-minute bell schedule.

When people live in poverty, their biggest barriers are transportation and child care. Students, especially those living in poverty, should have a chance to learn how to make a living after high school without the financial burden of traveling to another location or going to college.

Is college getting cheaper? No. The University of Iowa just raised tuition by seven percent for the next five years in a row. Kirkwood Community College is cheaper but isn’t free either.

The Iowa City community is full of college-educated people with college-bound children. But we mustn’t forget the children who need a living wage and need the benefits that a high school education could give them. They will work with their hands, and they need a chance to make more money than what working at McDonald’s or Burger King will pay them, which is not a living wage.

The college-educated need plumbers, welders, watchmakers, carpenters, mechanics, and others in the skilled trades. If, as a plumber or welder, they make $100,000 a year instead of $7.40 an hour, won’t their taxes help support our community and help pay the taxes that pay for the school district’s expenses?