Delaware DOE Posts “Cheap Labor” Vendor Request To Market “Pathways to Prosperity”

Pathways to Prosperity is the greatest invention Delaware ever had!  If you believe that one, you stand to profit from what amounts to a cheap labor program designed to beef up corporate profit while using students to do so.

The Pathways Steering Committee recently recommended a Request for Proposal to make the Pathways To Prosperity initiative really shine.  They want a huge marketing push on this.  After all, this committee does include Del Tech, Rodel, and The Delaware Business Roundtable.  What corporate CEO doesn’t want cheap labor?  The best part is you don’t have to farm jobs out to foreign countries.  You can do it right here in your own state.  All you need are a bunch of students in high school or college and you can call them “paid internships”.  Once students complete these internships, they can earn a secondary diploma or a “certificate”.  How awesome!  NOT!

To be clear, I am ALL IN for students to continue education.  I am ALL IN for disengaged students becoming engaged.  What I am NOT all in for is companies taking advantage of school instruction for their own advantage.  This RFP from the Delaware Dept. of Education is a fascinating read.  RFPs always have some key information about what an initiative is REALLY about.  They have to sell it to a prospective vendor.

Delaware Pathways is an education and workforce partnership that creates a career pathways system for all youth.

Notice the word “all”.  Does all mean all?  Eventually.  Wait until Blockchain really gets going in public education…

This effort is guided by the Delaware Pathways Steering Committee, which represents a cross-sector group of policy makers, educators, employers, and community leaders who developed the Delaware Pathways Strategic Plan.

No parents.  No students.  No parents.  No students.  Shall I go on?

Registered Apprenticeship is a proven method of training which involves on-the-job work experience coupled with related instruction, typically offered in a classroom setting.

Please show me the statistics showing this “proven method”.  I am not against apprenticeships.  I am against taking advantage of apprenticeships for cheap labor.

Registered apprentices work for their employer or sponsor and are paid while they learn their respective trade. Registered Apprenticeship, in simple terms, is a program of “learning while earning.”

Are they paid at the same levels regular employees are who would perform the same job function?  Yeah, I didn’t think so.  And how much goes toward other entities while students are “paid”?  Who else gets a cut of this pay?  “Learning while earning” is definitely earning.  The companies earn a lot toward their bottom line.  Disgusting…

Registered Apprenticeships are offered in a variety of occupations. The majority of Registered Apprenticeships are four years in length or 8000 hours of on-the-job training. For each year of training, a minimum of 144 hours of related instruction is required.

8,000 hours is a whole heck of a lot of hours.  That is a lot of pay at a reduced scale that could be helping the average Delawarean.  Companies don’t want to train regular employees.  They LOVE this initiative.  And they will use taxpayer dollars to provide that training.  It is a win-win for companies.  This is exactly WHY they care about education so much.  I kind of thought education was about kids getting a well-rounded education in ALL subjects.  But this will radically transform that so kids only get instruction in certain subjects on the way to their “career path”.  Dumb them down, make sure kids don’t question authority, and then you own them for life.  Big Brother is here, owned by Education Inc.  Did you really think it was “for the kids”?  Please…

Upon completion of the required on-the-job training and related instruction, the apprentice is eligible for Journey papers. A journeyperson is nationally recognized as having a well-rounded ability in all phases of their trade.

Note the words “required” and “nationally recognized”.  Say goodbye to the days of applying for a job, getting hired, and then going through an orientation-training class.  This is the new hiring process for companies.  If you don’t get in on THEIR agenda, you are screwed.  And if you are an older person, looking to change careers, you are doubly screwed.

The intersection of Delaware Pathways and Registered Apprenticeship programs is a result of Delaware’s career pathways system, which begins in the public education system (K-12) through Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways offered in charter, comprehensive, and technical school districts.

What a well-timed intersection.  Like it wasn’t planned for decades.  This is what happens when you let a “non-profit” like the Rodel Foundation dictate education policy.  This is what happens when you let corporations in education.  They plant the seeds and take over.

These pathways continue through adult education, occupational training programs, as well as Registered Apprenticeship and postsecondary programs that are administered by partnering state agencies, institutions of higher education, and other service providers.

Thus, we have Governor Carney’s “public-private partnerships” in full swing.  All hail the Chief!

As a result, Delaware’s career pathways system aligns secondary and postsecondary education and concurrently pairs rigorous academics and workforce education within the context of a specific occupation or occupational cluster.

“Rigorous academics” means the Common Core State Standards.  Which was, ironically enough, a Department of Defense initiative designed to change the human mind.  It was adopted by the Department of Education to actually change young minds to a digital technology environment.  But those standards have to be tested, thus crap like the Smarter Balanced Assessment and PARCC.  Make them once a year, get teachers and parents in a tizzy over them, and then institute a competency-based education environment.  Then comes the “stealth tests”- same tests as before, but broken up into chunks, to be given at the end of each unit in each class.  Impossible to opt out of those.  This takes it a step further, tying in the education and corporate worlds into a marriage of game-changing high stakes.

Participants who complete a career pathway attain a secondary school diploma or its equivalent, earn an industry-recognized credential, certificate, or license that holds value in the labor market, and have the opportunity to complete an Associate or Bachelor’s degree program at a Delaware college or university.

Don’t kid yourself.  This will be how it is done for ALL students in the future.  Call it what you want, but this will be a “digital badge” created specifically for your personal share on the Blockchain ledger.  The cradle to grave data tracking job creating machine is here!

View this document on Scribd