U.S. Rep. French Hill on Monday held what he called a "Community Empowerment Initiative Roundtable" to talk with Arkansas officials about ways to reduce poverty in the state.
The Little Rock meeting was the sixth such roundtable he has held since taking office in January 2015. Its theme was "career and technical education and skilled workforce."
The three-hour event included about a dozen business, government and education officials.
Hill, a Little Rock Republican, said he'd recently presented World War II medals to Charles Grisham, his seventh-grade shop teacher at Henderson Junior High School. "He remembered me. Of course, I remembered him, and I brought my sheet metal, handmade dustpan that's been in my dad's garage since 1970" to the ceremony, Hill said.
Growing up, all students got at least an introduction to vocational skills, Hill said. "I think we've done a disservice by saying every child needs to have a four-year college degree to be successful when we should say every child needs a plan before they turn 18 to be successful," Hill said, adding, "There are many, many choices on everybody's individual roads to pursuit of happiness."
During the session, several other speakers echoed that assessment, arguing that there are alternate routes to success.
Buckley O'Mell, vice president of advocacy at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, delivered a similar message, saying vocational education has been stigmatized in recent years.
"We've spent decades drilling into everybody's head that you've got to go to college or you're not successful and that's the only path," O'Mell said. "We've done ourselves a big disservice nationally. It's not just an Arkansas problem. It's everywhere."
That mindset needs to change, he said.
Often students "come out of Pulaski Tech or a similar school at a way higher wage level than you ever would going to the University of Arkansas and majoring in any number of liberal arts programs," he said. "These are good-paying jobs and good careers and they're not for people that just aren't strong enough to go to college."
Karen Rosa, program director at the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative, discussed her program's efforts to help low-income custodial parents pursue "career focused areas of study" at Arkansas community colleges.
Rosa said the typical student is bright and willing to work hard, but doesn't have the ability, without help, to break out of poverty.
"One of them said 'The arithmetic of life doesn't work if you're making minimum wage,'" Rosa said.
Students who get the training "go to work faster and their wages start up faster than my or your child with a liberal arts degree and a huge student loan debt," Rosa said.
Other participants Monday included Bill Stovall, executive director of Arkansas Community Colleges, plus representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor, Truck Centers of Arkansas, the North Little Rock School District, Dassault Falcon Jet and the Arkansas Department of Career Education.
Hill said his previous roundtables have focused on early child nutrition and health, foster care, homelessness, community development and educational improvement.
"The theme here is 'How do we lift people up out of poverty,'" Hill said. "It's a complex story so we've been breaking it down into pieces along the way."
Metro on 08/16/2016