EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
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March 8, 2001
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School-to-Work holds southern Minnesota conference

The following is a conference sponsored by the South Central School-to-Work Center, the South Central Service Cooperative, and the South Central WorkForce Council. It is astonishing that in the face of this kind of infrastructure (put into place with taxpayer dollars) many people continue to insist that there is no STW system in place in Minnesota.

Are they replacing academic knowledge with career training from pre-K and on? A memo sent home with a second grader announces that their weekly career counselling class (usually one hour) will this week be an all-day field trip for the purpose of "learning about different careers." They will visit a hospital, a flower shop, a restaurant, a pet shop and a grocery store. Before they can read and write, the schools are teaching them about their careers. The message to children is clear: the only purpose for education is for a job.

Note the breakout sessions in the taxpayer funded conference below:

• Integrating Career Development into the Curriculum
• Industry Based Skill Standards Credentialing (That is, "Skills Certificates," not an understanding) of US History)
• Tools for a Career Planning System (in other words, a STW system)

You can visit the federal Department of Education website and see the career clusters identified for Minnesota.

Then go to the DCFL website and look at what they are doing with teacher licensure.

The clusters identified for Minnesota on the federal Department of Education website are exactly the same careers that the DCFL is asking for teacher certification for!

Then recall the testimony of Assistant Commissioner Jesse Montano before a Senate hearing on February 26th, that the federal SCANS work skills are included in all ten learning areas of the profile of learning.

And Chancellor Morrie Anderson of MnSCU, who stated in a Senate hearing that, "If we are not teaching the National Skills Standards, we are not teaching the right kind of education."

There is no longer a liberal arts education for our children under the new system of School-to-Work.

Meanwhile, legislators continue to direct ever more money into "Career Technical Education," all while pretending this government control of education gives students a "choice." (For example., "HF63, Ness, Relating to education finance; restoring funding for secondary vocational programming; appropriating money." There is a false idea that students have a choice in this new system. They do not. All education is vocational and new appropriated money continues to expand the system that tracks students into specific jobs and trains them with skills certificates for those jobs. School has become a jobs training program, formerly handled by the businesses and individuals themselves.

"Making Connections" 4th Annual Conference

March 28th
8:15 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.
South Central Technical College, North Mankato/Mankato Campus

Designed for teachers, school and youth counselors, graduation standards technicians, school administrators, youth employment and training staff, board members of STW partnerships, employers, parents and community members.

Keynote speaker, Sarah Schutt, Outreach Specialist for the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializes in providing staff training workshops on a variety of topics to educators and career development. She will address ongoing change in our society and the need for comprehensive career development, explore the rise of the "New Entrepreneur" and suggest foundational concepts, resources and strategies for practitioners and clients to use in the career development process with workers of the 21st Century.

There will be morning and afternoon general sessions and a variety of breakout sessions. During the morning general session, Sarah will examine resources that can be integrated easily into classroom curriculum. Through an activity utilizing national standard and competencies, educators will discover how existing curriculum may lay the foundation for career development delivery. A panel of employers will be presented at the afternoon general session.

Breakout session topics include:

• Integrating Career Development Into the Curriculum
• Industry Based Skill Standards Credentialing
• Elementary Best Practices (an example)
• Service Based Learning: Medford, MN
• FREE Minnesota Internet Based Education and Career Tools for Teachers and Students
• Vocational Technical Education Consortium of States (VTECS) Overview
• Project Based Learning: Connecting Classrooms
• MAPPING For Success
• Tools for a Career Planning System

Scholarship and substitute teacher reimbursement funds are available to attendees within Region 9 and members of the South Central And Cannon Tech Prep, and SC Carl Perkins Consortiums. (Attendees from other areas should check with their Tech Prep or Perkins Consortia or STW partnerships.) Attendees will earn 5.5 Continuing Education credits.

Pre-registration is required. Registrations will be accepted until March 16, 2001. The registration fee is $20.00 per person. For more information, please contact Kathryn Rusch, SC STW Center at 507-889-7241 or email to KathrynR@sctc.mnscu.edu.

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