Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University


CBER Data Center
Projects and
Publications
Economic
Indicators
Weekly
Commentary
County
Profiles
Community
Asset Inventory
Brownfield Grant
Writers' Toolbox
Manufacturing
Scorecard

About

Commentaries are published weekly and distributed through the Indianapolis Business Journal and many other print and online publications. Disclaimer

RSS Feed

Disclaimer

The views expressed in these commentaries do not reflect those of Ball State University or the Center for Business and Economic Research.

Recent

Teacher Pay Is the Symptom of Deeper ProblemsState spending per Hoosier student is down more than 7.0 percent since 2010.

Questions from an Economic ForecastThe economic recovery is in the hands of vaccine distributors, not economic policymakers.

Stop Restricting Indianapolis GrowthIn the 21st century, a full 85 percent of the state’s population growth happened within the Indianapolis metro area.

Indiana’s Lagging Educational AttainmentFinancial security without a college degree is possible but not probable.

View archives

Top Tags

jobs and employment 196
economics 162
economic development 120
taxes 117
education 116
finance 102
recession 91
budget and spending 72
state and local government 71
unemployment and the labor market 71
Browse all tags
Reporter / Admin Login

February 9, 2020

Back to Basics in Education, and Away from Vocational Indoctrination

Indiana’s economic future will be primarily determined by the share of Hoosier adults who graduated from college. If that share remains low, our economy will languish, our incomes will continue to fall further behind the national average and our best-educated citizens will relocate elsewhere. This truth cannot be too often repeated, but it begs other questions, mostly about schooling, and the needs of citizens who do not go to college. 

For most of us, the bulk of our formal education comes in K-12 schools, rather than college or graduate school. Public schools remain the most common preparation for college and life afterwards. A good K-12 experience can prepare us to learn throughout our life, while giving us the basics of science, mathematics, literature and the arts. 

For kids heading to college, rigorous high school programs are important. But, for kids not heading to college, the rigor and substance of K-12 is even more critical. This is the last time those students will receive formal education designed to make them a learned person. That fact is reason enough to question the way Indiana now focuses vocational education. Yet, the General Assembly has legislation before it to align curriculum from primary to college to meet workforce needs. 

Now, to be clear, I don’t know what specific skills today’s middle school kids will need in two decades, but neither does anyone else. I am merely being honest about my inability to know the unknowable. For the record, acknowledging such limits to knowledge used to be a feature of conservatism. 

Continuing labor market changes, including automation, artificial intelligence and much more widespread adoption of today’s technologies make it nearly impossible to predict job specific skills of the future. Asking business leaders these questions is folly. A full half of today’s businesses will be gone by 2030, and they are as ignorant as the rest of us about these changes. 

To accentuate the point, imagine today’s labor markets and technologies from the vantage point of 2000. The first Blackberry Phone was two years away, China was a modest importer, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was a high school sophomore. Now imagine how a committee in Indianapolis is going to design an effective, integrated curriculum to meet workforce needs two decades into the future. They are not. The state’s recent track record on such matters should generate significantly more humility. 

The only skill that we are certain will be needed by today’s kids in 20 years is the ability to learn and master new skills. Our certain ignorance about the specific skills needed in 2040 is a compelling argument for more focus on basics in K-12 education; stronger basic math, science and literacy. The focus on vocational schooling is stunning hubris. 

We will always need workers with skills that differ from those taught in a college classroom. Workers with different types of education bring to bear different skills into labor markets. But, it is a remarkable fact that both wages and productivity for high school graduates are highest in places with large shares of college graduates. Today, the worst employment options for non-college graduates are in cities with few college graduates. This suggests that labor markets reward non-college skills that complement those of college graduates. These skills are almost certainly not those we are presenting to unwitting middle and high school students as a gateway to non-college careers. 

Link to this commentary: https://commentaries.cberdata.org/1042/back-to-basics-in-education-and-away-from-vocational-indoctrination

Tags: education, school, workforce and human capital, indiana


About the Author

Michael Hicks cberdirector@bsu.edu

Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Hicks earned doctoral and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Military Institute. He has authored two books and more than 60 scholarly works focusing on state and local public policy, including tax and expenditure policy and the impact of Wal-Mart on local economies.

© Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University

About Ball State CBER Data Center

Ball State CBER Data Center is one-stop shop for economic data including demographics, education, health, and social capital. Our easy-to-use, visual web tools offer data collection and analysis for grant writers, economic developers, policy makers, and the general public.

Ball State CBER Data Center (cberdata.org) is a product of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. CBER's mission is to conduct relevant and timely public policy research on a wide range of economic issues affecting the state and nation. Learn more.

Terms of Service

Center for Business and Economic Research

Ball State University • Whitinger Business Building, room 149
2000 W. University Ave.
Muncie, IN 47306-0360
Phone:
765-285-5926
Email:
cber@bsu.edu
Website:
www.bsu.edu/cber
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/BallStateCBER
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/BallStateCBER
Close