This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 22, 2013 - >The teens outfitted in green scrubs in the health occupations class at Pattonville High School are just the students that a $500,000 grant was designed to help.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon stopped by the school Monday morning to emphasize how the money – part of the nationwide Innovation High School grant program -- is supposed to help ease the way from the classroom to the workplace in professions that will need skilled workers in the years to come.
And because the program can also help them earn college credits, it can save them some money as a bonus.
“These are fields where clearly the jobs are out there,” Nixon said, noting that college student debt has now overtaken credit card debt, so any time that a student’s academic career can be shortened because of courses taken during high school makes economic as well as academic sense.
“This will help get folks in the door.”
Before receiving a standing ovation in the high school's packed auditorium, Nixon visited the classroom where the students stood amidst a variety of health-care equipment, from a blood pressure cuff on a disembodied arm to an elderly gray-haired mannequin lying in a hospital bed.
Teacher Anjie Stendeback told Nixon that in addition to their classroom work, the students get exposure to the real world of health care by observing at nearby DePaul hospital and interacting with patients at a nursing home.
“We try to give them a competitive edge,” she said.
Nixon urged the students to take advantage of the grant by applying themselves. “There’s plenty of work out there,” he said. “Keep studying. Keep working hard.”
And with the topic of health care at hand, the governor had a chance to get in a plug for his efforts for Missouri to take advantage of federal money to expand its Medicaid program, despite the opposition of GOP legislative leaders.
Acknowledging that it takes courage for some lawmakers to accept the proposal he has put forward, Nixon said it’s time for legislators to put the health care of Missourians first.
“We’re trying to get people beyond the politics of last year and into the realities of this year,” he said. “That’s the challenge.”
The Pattonville grant is one of three that will help schools work with St. Louis Community College and local businesses in fields like health care, advanced manufacturing and information technology. St. Louis Public Schools received $499,196 and Ferguson-Florissant School District received $289,800 from Community Development block grants, administered by the state’s Department of Economic Development.
Nixon emphasized that all three schools had to go through a rigorous application process to win the grants. Missouri is one of six states chosen by Harvard University and Jobs for the Future to take part in the program.
In Pattonville, businesses and others involved in the program include Ameren Missouri, the city of Maryland Heights, DePaul Health Center, Eagle Consultants, Fred Weber, Pattonville Fire Protection District and Schattdecor. The grants are part of the Pathways to Prosperity pilot program initiated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
After telling the student assembly that “it is not enough any more for schools to simply teach the basic skills,” the governor said they must be ready to take advantage of every edge to stay ahead in a worldwide marketplace.
“Schools are preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow and giving businesses the skilled workforce that they need today,” Nixon said.
“All we can do is provide the tools. All we can do is provide the opportunity.”
In a question-and-answer session with reporters, Nixon said he supports Missouri’s adoption of the common core standards that have been accepted by a majority of states nationwide but have been the subject of legislative debate.
“They are a part of the improvement we expect and demand,” he said.
And he said he welcomes the higher evaluation standards for teachers that will be coming with the new version of the state’s school improvement plan that is going into effect this year.
But, Nixon said, he doesn’t see any value in adopting a method of grading individual schools, A through F, that is working its way through the legislature, calling it simplistic. He said a lot of information on each public school in the state is available online, and he thinks parents and others who are interested in how students in any school are doing should use that information to get a broader understanding.
“To narrow all of that down to one single letter is an oversimplification,” Nixon said.