ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
KENNETH STOCKTON says his employer has quit offering internships because too many students aren't prepared for high-tech jobs. Congressional candidates offer their answers on improving education.
When Kenneth Stockton takes a look back at recent crops of high school graduates, he shakes his head with sadness and concern.
The 45-year-old Raleigh Court resident remembers when the headquarters of the robotics company that employs him was teeming with recent grads who were eager for jobs or internships.
No more.
The company quit inviting them in because they were woefully unprepared for working in a high-technology environment, Stockton says. The investment in time and money wasn't likely to yield qualified employees, so it was hardly worth the bother.
"We stopped doing that because it takes up too much of our time," Stockton says. "It wasn't valid for us to spend time with students. We'd ask them questions, and we wouldn't get any answers. The vocational/technical students, at least they were interested in the subject matter. But they were lacking a whole body of knowledge that would let them work with computers."
Stockton's chief concern is teachers. He wants to know what congressional candidates would do to bring teachers with real-world experience back into the classroom.
"All the teachers I have known in the past are out of the field, because the system as it is doesn't give them the leeway to teach students in ways they know works," he says. "There ought to be teachers experienced in the real world - not just out of [college]."
Jeff Grey, a Democrat running for Congress in the 6th District, says higher pay for teachers would accomplish that.
"The bottom line is if we recognize teaching as the respected profession that it is, and we raise the pay of teachers proportionately to that, we will have a broader base in which to recruit teachers from," says Grey, who has been endorsed by teachers organizations in Roanoke and Roanoke County.
At the same time, "we need to realize that teaching is a speciality in and of itself," says Grey, whose wife is a teacher in Staunton public schools. "Having the ability to teach is a talent. Whereas a person such as myself may have a lot of knowledge about electronics, I may not have the talent or skills to teach that knowledge to students. I'm not sure that just because a person is a physicist or a doctor or an electrician means that they're capable of teaching that in a school environment."
For Grey's opponent, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the answer is getting federal rules and requirements out of local classrooms. The Roanoke Republican has voted for legislation that would take the strings off federal education money and give it to localities as block grants.
"Forty to 50 percent [of federal education aid] never gets back to classroom," because it's consumed by government rules, regulations and other red tape, Goodlatte says. "It's a local issue that needs to be run by local school boards and by teachers. You don't need to have a federal bureaucracy involved to micromanage our education system."
"Some school systems need more computers," Goodlatte adds. "Some need to raise teacher salaries. Some need new school buildings. But the more mandates they receive from the federal government, the harder it is for them to spend the money on what they think is needed in their school system, because they have to comply with so many regulations."
For Libertarian Jay Rutledge, the third candidate in the race, the solution is a "free market" in education that would offer more choices in educational methods.
Stockton says he generally agrees with Grey on the issue of teacher pay, but that he believes the answers from both candidates are too general.
"They didn't go into any great detail. That's the way they answer today, just general answers," he said.
Got a question for the candidates? Let us know so we can follow up. In Roanoke, call 981-0100. In New River, 382-0200. Press category 7821.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kenneth Stockton of Raleigh Court is worried about theby CNBrelevance of the school system. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESS