Ms. Hancock? ROP to only be for High School students?

Off Topic Educators Exchange forum
#1

Ok, does anyone know about this (Senator, Legislator, Representor or whatever) Ms. Hancock or Handcock that is pushing a Calif. state bill thru for all ROP (Regional Occupational Program = free entry level job training classes) to only be open to High school students and no adults?

With the Calif. state mandating the HS students to pass the test to graduate and if she gets this bill passed, just put a fork in ROP as it will be dead. It would be a great shame as then where is the entry level training for anyone going to come from?

I’ll post more of my personal comments later…

#2

March 15, 2006

Sacramento Update –
The bond deal looks dead until November. The latest version has $500 million for CTE facilities in the 2006 bond and another $500 million in a 2008 bond, along with some other good language for CTE. We have been working with the other CTE organizations to ensure that the bond language is strong – hopefully the legislature will figure out a way to reach compromise on all of their issues. The education piece is not holding up agreement.
The A-G groupies are back, with AB 1896 (Coto) as their flagship legislation for this session. This particular bill is even worse than previous editions, because it offers districts an opportunity to “opt out” of offering any CTE courses by simply stating that they are financially unable to do so. This provision would exempt districts from complying with current Education Code requirements to offer career preparation as well as college preparatory programs to students – paving the way for a compulsory liberal studies education for all children in California. What a deal!
Another A-G bill from Senator Alarcon, SB 1543, would funnel any increased CTE monies from the state to ROP programs in districts that have adopted the A-G curriculum as their default curriculum for all students. In other words, let’s reward districts that have eliminated CTE offerings by giving additional CTE monies to ROP programs to teach students that are no longer able to take those courses! Can’t wait to hear the rationale for this one. Senator Alarcon is termed out in November.
AB 918 (Wyland) is back, which will require the CSU system to recognize CTE courses for admission purposes if they offer majors in those areas. We have met with CSU officials, who see no purpose for this legislation and who deny that their admission policies cause enrollment conflicts for CTE students. In other words, there is no problem here! This should be an interesting public policy debate.

AB 2448 (Hancock) is aimed at reforming the ROP programs in California who are heavily loaded with adult students (65%+) and who have wandered far off course from the original mission of ROPs. This important bill reflects a growing realization in Sacramento that the entire CTE “pipeline” needs to be rebuilt in a way that serves students within the comprehensive school system. We expect some interesting discussion here as well.

It now appears that the Bush administration’s efforts to eliminate Perkins funding may not be successful, but we still need you to make your opinions known to your elected Representatives in Congress. If you haven’t done so already, get on the NAAE website and use their program to send a message directly to your Representative. Every member of the California delegation needs to understand how important Carl D. Perkins funds are to local programs throughout the state! These messages should be sent ASAP, since the vote to reauthorize Perkins may come at any time. Do it today!

For the non educational people, the Carl Perkins fund is what we use to make any new improvements in the way of Equipment or technology for in the classrooms so we can give the students a real life / Industry education…

#3

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2401-2450/ab_2448_bill_20060223_introduced.html

#4

Anyone heard more of this from the March 23 (?) meeting or vote?

How to find her E-mail addy?

Anyone have it as several people I have talked to out in the business world would like to send her a message as their own businesses have improved due to the fact that ROP’s allow adults to be better educated!

#5

Assemblymember.Hancock@assembly.ca.gov

http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a14/

#6

We have a program simular to what you do here but not a composites class and they tried to make it for highschool students only and that failed. They did it for one year with 80% less people then the year before because it was mostly adults in it

#7

I have heard and read alot about these discussions. The Time Magazine for April 17th has a great story titled “Dropout Nation.” The Sacramento Bee lists articles all the time pro for more Voc Ed. Ask the Students what they want and they will tell you more relevent courses like R.O.P. After all R.O.P is life in the real world.:slight_smile:

#8

Well, I have been out (sick, bad teeth or sinus headaches…) the last week or so and I just found out that AB2448 goes to final vote today, June 2nd and it is looking like it will pass…

I can see the postestors already lining up…as whos is going to pick the 10% of adults that gets to take ROP classes?

The state and school boards are at fault for not keeping industrial arts classes and new Industrial teachers coming up thur the system.

When I went thru school, we had auto, metal, wood, welding and other industrial art classes and without them, I never could have started my own manufacturing business while I was in my early 20’s (back in 1977).

I have been teaching my GGROP Plastics class for 12 years now. It is a long story and I won’t get into it fully here now.

Most, if not all, of my High school students I get into my class never had a tool in their hands let alone, how to use them. I have even asked their parents about some of their experiences with tools and most state that there also wasn’t any industrial classes for them when they went thru school too!

So, the High schools are trying to prep and send EVERY high school student to college. get a clue, not every student is going to college and they need real world education. So we end up with Engineers that don’t know the first thing about how to use tools (one of my race car pit crew member is an areospace engineer and he has told me that he has found other engineers that have little to no knowledge of the use of simple hand tools).

So my guess, just send any actual “hands on” manufacturing to CHINA or other 3rd world countries…
[SIZE=3]
[SIZE=2]So, what about the High school students that have grad in the last few years or the next few years…where are they going to get Vocational Education if the ROP’s are high school students only? At College…not really as they do more theroy and practices and not hands ons…

More later on (my head hurts…) and after I hear the results of todays Assembly voting…[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]

#9

Not looking too good at all…:frowning:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_2448&sess=CUR&house=B&author=hancock

#10

Here’s a list of Calif. Education Legislators:

Dang programs…I can’t get it small enough or Word it gets all messed up! I’ll figure it out later…

#11

[CENTER]E-mail[/CENTER]
[CENTER]The Calif. Governor Now![/CENTER]
[CENTER]http://www.govmail.ca.gov[/CENTER]
[CENTER]------------------------[/CENTER]
[CENTER]Tell the Calif. Governor[/CENTER]
[CENTER]& your Senator to:[/CENTER]
[CENTER]Appose and VETO[/CENTER]
[CENTER]AB 2448 (Hancock)[/CENTER]
[CENTER]THIS BILL WILL STOP ADULTS[/CENTER]
[CENTER](…and just graduated High School students) from TAKING R.O.P.[/CENTER]
[CENTER]Job Training CLASSES[/CENTER]
[CENTER] [/CENTER]
[CENTER]E-mail him as many times as you feel is necessary![/CENTER]

#12

[CENTER]Oppose AB 2448 (Hancock)[/CENTER]

Dear Senator:

I implore you with the strongest possible request, that you oppose AB 2448 and any proposed amendments. The California Association of School Administrators (ACSA), the California School Board of Education (CSBE) and the California Association of Regional Occupation Programs and Centers CAROC/P are against the bill because:

AB 2448 is about Age Discrimination: Adult taxpayers will be denied access to education by virtue of their age. No other self selected, non-mandatory educational agency is discriminated against in this fashion. The current and recently High School graduated students also will not have any access to job training for them to get a decent job or career.

AB 2448 is a Punitive Profiler: Communities with large numbers of low-social economic and poverty stricken adults will be denied cost-free, job-market specific training located within their community. Or others that what a career change or to start their own business too!

AB 2448 is Written poorly: There are vague passages filled with glittering generalities that would increase bureaucratic inefficiency and raise hidden costs.

AB 2448 is Wasteful: If only high school students can attend ROP, then classrooms (filled with expensive, state tax funded, high-tech technology) will go unused, when needy adults could benefit from evening and Saturday job preparation courses. The combining of High School & Adults together allows them to learn from each other too!

AB 2448 is Deceptive: While claiming to be about supporting Career/Technical education for high school students, it offers no plan for how this is to be accomplished, or how students with impacted schedules can avail themselves of Career/Technical programs when they are trying to pass the High School exit test too!

AB 2448 Destroys Local Control: All governing school boards would have, over night, their decision making superseded by one bill that is so broad in scope it ignores the realities of individual community needs. ROC/P’s are “regional” economic solutions for specific regions of California.

AB 2448 is Anti Immigrant: Immigration policies will be damaged by removing free, short-term job training programs that are sorely needed by millions. Also, who gets to picks out the 10% of adults that get to attend ROP classes out of the masses?

AB 2448 is Irresponsible: Why would the legislature want to move money into new funding streams without any accountability of such drastic changes in existing education code and education structure?

Sincerely,