HARLINGEN — Is there a “stigma” attached to kids taking an educational pathway toward a technical career?
State Rep. Eddie Lucio III thinks there is, and he’s prepared to do something about it.
“Eight-two percent of our high school graduates will not have a certificate or license or degree within six years of graduation,” Lucio told the board. “Couple that with 80 percent of the new jobs in Texas requiring a certificate license or a degree.
“So we only have 18 percent of our population qualified to support 80 percent of the new job growth,” he added. “If you look at San Antonio, for example, their Toyota plant is a thousand skilled workers deficient in being at full capacity of what they need to be.”
Lucio was addressing the Har-lingen Eco-nomic Dev-elopment Corp., and at his urging the board last week committed up to $30,000 to join McAllen, Pharr, Mission and Brownsville to establish a review of the state of technical education at high schools, community colleges and universities in the Valley.
The study will be a partnership with the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service which will canvass the region with the dual purpose of establishing strengths and weaknesses among schools as well as marketing technical education to students, parents and counselors.
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