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Cuts seen as a ceiling
Less money may mean no place in college for high school students preparing for jobs
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
The Clark County School District invests heavily in career and technical education because, officials say, it effectively prepares students for both college and the job market.
But because of looming cuts to higher education, some of the district’s students, especially those pursuing careers in health care, might be getting a springboard into an empty pool — or at least one that’s rapidly draining.
More than 2,000 high school students are this year preparing for careers as nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and other medical professionals. Although that would seem to bode well for a state that lacks adequate numbers of health care professionals, opportunities are dwindling for these students to complete in college the training they began in high school.
Nevada’s higher education system, along with other state agencies, faces steep budget cuts.
Chancellor Jim Rogers has said cuts at the levels proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons would leave him no choice but to reduce enrollment in Nevada’s seven nursing programs. Such a move would cause long-term harm to the state’s health care system, Rogers said in a Sept. 30 memo to the Board of Regents.
Even before the proposed cuts came along, the state was falling behind in training the nurses it needs.
A 2005 study determined Nevada should add 716 registered nurses a year through 2010 to keep pace with demand. The state’s colleges and universities produce fewer than 300 RN graduates a year.
Assuming a best-case scenario, in which every graduate chooses to work in Nevada after graduation, the state would have an annual shortfall of more than 400 nurses.
Hundreds of qualified applicants seeking to become nurses — among them the high schoolers the district is preparing — are turned away each year because of a lack of seats in state nursing schools. The College of Southern Nevada, home to the state’s largest nursing program, with 550 students, turns away hundreds of qualified applicants a year.
If the budget cuts are carried out, CSN would have to trim its nursing enrollment by 128.
To Breana Goodall-Fleming, a junior in Rancho High School’s medical academy, dwindling college opportunities would be a betrayal. The message to her generation has been consistent and clear: Work hard and you will get into college. Go to college and you will be successful.
“Now, if they say we can’t, it’s like they tricked us,” she said.
Research has long shown the benefits of career and technical education — students who are engaged are more likely to study, attend class and graduate. It’s one reason the School District has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in career and technical academies and magnet programs at traditional high schools. The intent was to connect “children into occupational paths where we know they would find employment,” Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.
Yet given the budgetary climate, Rulffes said: “I feel like we might be sending them down the wrong path if there aren’t college opportunities for them here. Our whole premise is that this is a cooperative effort with higher education.”
The programs have also created ties to the broader community, as businesses provide internships, mentoring and financial support.
At Sunrise Hospital, Recruiting Director Ron Winkler created Camp Wannabeanurse to give the School District’s career track students the opportunity to spend a day on the job.
At a recent session, students from the district’s career academies and magnet high schools toured the emergency room and neonatal unit. They watched a medical helicopter touch down and they hurried over to pepper a flight nurse with questions.
Winkler said he was impressed by the students’ knowledge and enthusiasm.
“That’s our future,” Winkler said. “All you have to do is open that door and they’ll walk right in.”
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I beg to differ. My son did not want to go on to college (I wish he had) because he was tired of going to school. Now he's struggling to find a job. It's important to have that high school diploma, but apparently employers think otherwise.
A high school diploma will get you the opportunity to knock on the door, but without a 2-year or 4-year college degree the employer won't open the door. Students need to understand that education beyond the high school diploma is necessary to fulfill any hopes of achieving a meaningful career.
This is exhibit A on why government run anything is so stupid.
1) Most likely it is the government that is suppressing the supply of nursing for years by red tape and the lack of competence to build efficient and timely programs to produce nursing
2) Most likely it is the government that creates laws that make the work of nursing to be unproductive and therefore increasing demand for more nurses.
The 400 short-fall did not happen over night.
The university could end sporting programs, charge more for nursing programs or end other meaningless classes to keep the enrollment up or to increase enrollment.
Those would be obvious solutions especially boosting tutition for nursing programs.
But this is just Rogers playing politics.
Thank God his time is almost up.
Nevada spends more money building schools than it does on spending for classroom instruction.
Nevada needs more charter schools to keep capital costs down.
Some people from a certain party keep voting NO to charter schools and any choice program that will keep educating kids for less money.
Boy, if we had of done that a while back, education would be facing $0 in cuts today.
Nevada spends more money building schools than it does on spending for classroom instruction.
Nevada needs more charter schools to keep capital costs down.
Some people from a certain party keep voting NO to charter schools and any choice program that will keep educating kids for less money.
Boy, if we had of done that a while back, education would be facing $0 in cuts today.
Have real education reform. Approve school vouchers. Let each family choose the school that is right for their student. As in college, let state educational funds go to private schools and let them compete for the students. End the government and teachers union monopoly on the schools. End the indoctrination of one way for every child. Allow choice beyond the womb and let mothers choose where their child will be educated. McCain has proposed this and points out the poorest of the nations children are stuck in the worst schools. Give every child a chance and expand choice.
Keep dreaming. Voucher schools are a myth. Where are all the private schools going to come from. As it is, getting into a private school is tough, and it's on a first come first serve basis. You throw it open to the public with vouchers, who will get in first. Those first in line, or those with more money? For that matter, private school teachers DON'T need credentials. Also what about the poor kid on the SW side of the valley by the 215 when his mom/dad decide they want to send him to Lamb of God Lutheran school over by Nellis AFB? For that matter private schools make you buy your own books, what about that? Also what about the fundamentalist schools that teach creationism, should government money go to the places that AREN'T preparing their kids for the university where evolution is solely taught? Voucher schools would scramble everything up. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Reform education, but outright voucher schools is another quack republican dream of letting THE MARKET (their economics god) decide.
Inner city minorities children are getting zero education by the government union run system.
DC has one of the highest per student funding rates in the world.
Yet, I doubt if one can find one congressmen, senator or high ranking offical send their children to that nightmare of a school system.
I would be in favor of voucher if it was only for children going to that zoo's of a school system.
At least they would have a half of a chance at some level of an education.