A Way Forward for DPS 61
This time, truly follow the money!
According to the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), “as the corporate entity charged by law with governing a school district, each school board sits in trust for its entire community… a school board in touch with the community-wide concerns and values will serve the broader public good.”
I encourage you to hold that thought. We will circle back to it.
At a recent talk given by the Assistant City Manager, I was delightfully surprised to learn about the substantial investment in industrial opportunities that has materialized in Decatur and Macon County. According to the Decatur EDC, our community is the beneficiary of $3 billion worth of projects that have been completed, under construction, or committed to build right here in Decatur.
As the presenter continued to expound on each individual project, he moved into a discussion centered on the impact this would have on employment here in our community:
350+ current openings with existing employers (excluding retail & foodservice)
1,150 new jobs projected beginning in 2026
12% increase in annual mean wages from 2021-2022 ($58,900 in 2022)
And as if that is not enough, the one element not listed above is the nearly 2,500 construction jobs that will be needed over the next several years as these investments become a reality!
Needless to say, I left that talk feeling encouraged. So many times, I have fallen into the trap of thinking that Decatur is on a steady decline – anxiously awaiting the day when we reach the bottom & lamenting that the community becomes a shell of its former self. This time, I walked away hopeful that good things could still happen to Decatur and the surrounding community. Do I anticipate a return to the heady days of the late 1970s when Decatur was a manufacturing juggernaut? Absolutely not! However, I do feel that our city leaders have positioned us well to successfully exploit the resources we do have in a positive way.
Okay, my guess is that you have come this far and are asking yourselves: “What gives? The focus at DPS Chalkboard is always on education. Why are Duane and Mike talking about potential economic development?” Again, stick with us. You will soon see where we are going with this.
A year ago, we began to delve into the work being done in CTE – both in DPS 61 and throughout the country. As dedicated readers, you may also recall some of the “back of the napkin” math we applied to our local graduates…
With total of 1,900 high school students, we will assume 475 of these are Seniors
DPS 61 reports a 73% graduation rate to The Illinois Report Card, so we guess that about 347 students will actually go through commencement.
Current research indicates that 66% will continue on to a post-secondary education – 229 students
Further, only 35.5% of that number will actually graduate (≈ 81 students)
Please note, the percentages for those going on to college, and those actually graduating are averages for the entire state of Illinois. When you consider how we tend to lag behind state indicators, it’s more likely that the real number is 50 students. Furthermore, as we have yet to find any mechanism within DPS61 that actually tracks student progress after they graduate, we are truly left with making these “guesstimates” using back-of-the-napkin math! In the end, the real question is this:
“What is Decatur Public Schools doing for the other 425 kids?”
For the last 15+ plus years, the mantra in education has been that we need to prepare our children to go to college and earn a degree so they can have a career & become productive and successful. In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, circa 2009, President Obama declared that the only way forward for our young people was to earn a college degree and we all agreed, including me and Mike. Today, however, we would both contend there is just as much, if not more, opportunity available for someone who does not go on to college.
Which leads me back to the opening statement about a school board that is in touch with community-wide concerns. It seems obvious that our city and business leaders have worked hard to create an atmosphere of investment as well as economic and employment opportunities. So where is the board of education when it comes to fostering an education system that supports this type of business growth & development? Where is the board of education and district leadership when it comes to helping our students gain reading & math skills so our “425 graduates” might avail themselves of the 3,600 job opportunities over the coming years?
At the turn of the century, I served on the board of Partners in Education - a group of business leaders, employers, and educators whose purpose was to promote employment and career opportunities to DPS 61 students. I distinctly remember Superintendent Gloria Davis challenging the head of a local trade union as to why students were not being hired into the skilled trades; his response to Ms. Davis was succinct and to the point. He said: “You give me a student with a C average in math, and I will gladly give them an apprenticeship. I have 100 of them at my disposal.” That has always stuck with me. They did not need a 35 on the ACT. They did not need a 5.0 GPA. They did not need valedictorians. All they needed was a “C.”
And that still rings true today. Just look at this wage/benefit schedule provided by the Decatur Building & Construction Trades Council that a registered apprentice can realize as they complete their program and becomes a Journeyman.
*Macon County Prevailing Wage Rates as of 07/15/21
**Includes Health & Welfare, Pension, Vacation & Training
In other words, by the time a student reaches their early twenties, they could be earning anywhere from $104,000 to $149,790 per year in wages & benefits. More important, the amount of student loan debt incurred is ZERO!
Now let’s look at the other side of this coin – the opportunity presented by a post-secondary, i.e. college, education. The data from the major clearinghouses indicate the following:
Average salary, associate degree ≈ $41,407
Average salary, bachelor’s degree ≈ $56,495
Average salary, master’s degree ≈ $86,372
When you factor in student loan debt (as of the 3rd quarter of 2023, average student loan debt was $38,290), it might be safe to say that President Obama was dead wrong. In fact, when you compare those data points, the non-college path presents a clear advantage!
Okay, it may have taken me a while to make the point, but DPS Chalkboard sees this as a major educational issue for our community. It is vital that the school board work hand-in-hand with other community leaders to create a system where all of our graduates, not just the fifty who might earn a college diploma, have the opportunity to flourish in their lives beyond high school. We encourage our local BOE members and the District Leadership Team to let go of the notion that college is the only way forward and to embrace the mentality that the true educational objective is to ensure our students are college OR job ready when they graduate.
While we at DPS Chalkboard never claim to have all of the answers, we are not afraid to offer potential solutions. Where do we start? Step one would be to elevate CTE (career and technical education) in high school, so it is just as important as going to college. Again, we are not experts, but we would envision the following:
1. Create an initiative that markets CTE to all of our 9th & 10th grade students; even start the conversation as early as the eighth grade if necessary
2. Set a goal to where 50% of all 11th graders are participating in some sort of CTE coursework, and we do not mean enrolled in a welding-class. Further, we need to stop worrying (in these particular CTE classes) about preparing a student to perform well on the SAT but instead on how well they will do on the electrical-union’s entry exam!
3. CTE should be an agenda item for every board meeting. Like the CARES/ESSER funds, CTE can be a true game-changer for District 61. Let’s not make the same mistake twice.
Once again, we offer these suggestions as a place to start. We have a great foundation in place with the Ag Academy and the CNA program within the Dawson Leadership Institute, but that is only the tip of the CTE iceberg. There is so much more that can be made available to our students and our community. We simply need the will to see what is available in our own backyard. And if our district leaders need a place to look, I recommend they start with the New York State Education Department. If our CTE program was one-tenth of what they have to offer, we would be light years ahead of the game!
The numbers listed in the chart above are real. The opportunities available in the community are real. College is not for everyone, and that is okay!
This time, truly follow the money.