Dear Future President,

While entering office I feel there is a subject matter you should be aware of as it affects our developing generations as well as their futures. It is important to enable workforce training in high school. This will be beneficial because it will help high school students decide whether or not they want to go to college. Anyone who is about to get out of high school or went through high school knows the decision of college is a tough one. Money is a huge factor, students worry if college is worth it or not. In the long run, it can be. Over the course of a 40 year working life you’ll make about $650,000 more on average than if you hadn’t gone to college. Kids also feel like standardized test’s tell them whether or not they can or should go to college.

The amount of students dropping out of college because they are unaware about what they want to do is really scary. Fifty-three percent of students who enter a four year college graduate in six years. In a two year community college, one half of students drop out before their second year. Only 25% finish the program within three years, these statistics could be drastically changed with workforce training programs in high school.

South-Eastern Regional Vocational Technical High School just South of Boston is a school that enables a workforce training program. These kids try a variety of options in careers and choose what program they want to be a part of and then they are able to work in an environment similar to that career. The culinary class runs their own restaurant and the auto repair class fixes cars involved in minor crashes. These students only have academics every other week. They have a 93% graduation rate which is 8% above state averages. The funny thing is, their SAT score averages are lower than the states which proves clearly what is most important to teach kids. Depending on how you look at it, this can show that standardized tests don’t really matter for students future. In Reno, Nevada we have a school similar to the vocational high school in Boston called AACT (Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology). Nevada’s state graduation rate was 70% in 2014, while my highschool has a graduation rate of 86%, and AACT has a graduation rate of 99%. This shows that vocational schools are beneficial for a student's success.

Workforce training in high schools will improve graduation rate, succession, and decrease college dropouts because students will be more aware and confident of their future. So, future president, making the majority of schools have workforce training programs will better develop and prepare our future generations. The statistics drastically show that through graduation rates.  

Bibliography

http://ww2.kqed.org/learning/2016/01/28/should-more-high-schools-offer-workforce-training/

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/nevada/districts/washoe-county-school-district/damonte-ranch-high-school-12349

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/nevada/districts/washoe-county-school-district/academy-of-art-careers-and-technology-12351

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/dec/15/nevada-high-school-graduation-rate-3rd-worst-in-na/

http://www.cagle.com/steve-sack/2015/05/student-loan-2

http://campusriot.com/tuition-talk-side-effects-of-college-costs-infographic/

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and-rising.html