EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
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October 30, 2001
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Career Clusters Will Transform Secondary Schools To Job Training Centers

A U of M nursing school graduate is grateful her family moved to America, because in England she couldn’t have become a nurse. Why? England tests children to determine their vocational track, and her track didn’t allow for nursing degrees.

Students in Minnesota may soon face the same predicament. As stated in the St. Paul Public Schools Education Blueprint, "students will participate in structured career education starting in elementary school." They will be directed into a career focus by eighth or ninth grade and spend their remaining high school years in one of five or six "career clusters;" examples include health services, human services, and business. This restructuring will limit students’ choice of courses and change the focus of education to job training.

This isn’t just limited to St. Paul schools, but is a trend we’re seeing in various stages of implementation around the state. For example, The Caledonia Argus states in January 2000, "students plan their four year high school career beginning with registration in the eighth grade." The principal added in a letter parents received the day after the above newsletter arrived: "…there will be no changes made once the final schedule is in place."

The purpose of K-12 education is not to train workers for specific jobs. In this information age, students need a good foundation of knowledge that will provide future options such as college, technical training, professional career, and raising a family.

Career clusters, on the other hand, will focus on specific job skills, making it more difficult to move into new interests or vocations later in life. More importantly, students won’t get the broad knowledge necessary for living and governing ourselves in a free society. Hitler once said, "It is enough if citizens can count to ten and read simple instructions." He believed an educated citizen was a future enemy of his state.

Minnesota’s recently passed K-12 education bill states: "A school district may develop grade-level curricula or provide instruction that introduces students to various careers, but must not require any curriculum, instruction, or employment-related activity that obligates an elementary or secondary student to involuntarily select a career, career interest, employment goals, or related job training."

The intent of this legislation is to ensure that we don’t replace a broad knowledge-based education with job skills training. Yet, St. Paul, which many see as a model for the rest of the state, appears to be contradicting this statute as they restructure their secondary schools into career clusters. Please consider the following quotations (with my comments in parentheses) from the St. Paul Public Schools Education Blueprint, the document written by St. Paul Schools to promote career clusters.)

"Learning must also be more closely connected to industry standards…" (In 1992, the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills [SCANS], under the U.S. Department of Labor, compiled entry-level occupational skills. Students across the nation will be trained toward these standards/skills, which form the backbone of the "high-standards" curriculum being implemented throughout Minnesota.)

"All students participate in…job shadowing, mentorships, internships, and service learning." (Time that could be spent on academics will be used for entry and low level job skills training on and off school premises.)

"Students identify a career cluster through which their work on standards [SCANS skills] is made relevant, challenging, and engaging." (Career training is not more relevant, challenging, and engaging than the wealth of knowledge found in subjects such as history, literature, science, mathematics, art. Adding such training to the school day inevitably takes time from other subjects.)

"Based on federal and state research on where job growth is anticipated, St. Paul secondary schools will consider six career clusters as a focus of their small learning environment." (Government-appointed workforce boards will determine the labor needs of regions throughout Minnesota and guide students into career clusters to meet state-defined needs. Government and schools should not tamper with our students’ futures and our free-market economy.)

"The percentage of students participating in…work and community-based learning opportunities will grow to…100 percent by 2005-06." (Every student should have access to a broad-based academic foundation in grades K-12, with an optional vocational track in high school. Under the Education Blueprint, all secondary students must choose one of five or six career clusters.)

This emphasis on vocational training is driven by federal legislation and is being implemented in every state, eventually affecting home and private schools. Citizens must become informed; a good start is by looking up www.mredco.com or www.mredcopac.org or by calling the Maple River Education Coalition at 651-646-0646 for information and resources.

I applaud the many dedicated teachers who truly want the best education for our children, but we as citizens must be vigilant and oversee the educational system itself. Our children’s futures and our freedoms are at stake.

By Jean Swenson, copyright October 2001. You may contact the author at jswenson@minn.net .

The above article is virtually identical to her article published as Community Columnist in the St. Paul Pioneer Press Editorial Page, September 28, 2001.  Here it has been slightly updated to remove information about a conference now past.

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