Kwame Thanks Rhee for Recognizing the Value of Phelps and Career Technical Education to Reform Efforts
Filed under Intensify Education, Job Creation, The People's Blog
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Kwame calls for adult classes to begin at Phelps this summer
Today, At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown thanked Chancellor Michelle Rhee for joining the effort to revitalize career technical education (CTE) in the District. Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School was the subject of a report on WAMU 88.5 FM this morning, in which Rhee commented on the potential of CTE programs, like those at Phelps, to prepare District students for jobs of the future. Councilmember Brown, whose amendment funded Phelps’ $63 million reconstruction, believes that the school can revolutionize CTE programs and be used as a national model. He also called on Rhee, Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso and Director of the Department of Employment Services Joseph P. Walsh to act on a law passed by the Council last year to open Phelps nights and weekends to adult District residents for career training starting this summer.
“Phelps is the most modernized public high school on the east coast and the only public high school of its kind in the country,” said Councilmember Brown. “As we move towards a comprehensive solution to education reform, Phelps should be used as a national model for preparing our youth and adults for future jobs. I’m excited that the Chancellor recognizes the importance of career technical education to the future of our city. Now it’s critical that we expand Phelps to include classes for adults on nights and weekends starting this summer.”
“We have to be thinking about CTE programs in a different light,” said Chancellor Rhee to WAMU. “Looking at where are the jobs, right? So, thinking about green collar jobs right, green tech, bio tech, those sorts of things. That’s an area moving forward into the next decade or so where there’s going to be an explosion of job growth and so we can be preparing our children for those jobs.”
Last year, the Council passed a new law entitled the Get DC Residents Training for Jobs Now Act and provided over $5 million for adult career technical education. The law called for adult classes to begin at Phelps along with two other District facilities. The programs at Cardozo Construction Academy and Roosevelt Hospitality High School have started but the Phelps program has yet to begin.
“How we work together to train our residents now will have a lasting impact five to ten years down the road,” said Councilmember Brown. “This is a positive step to address our long-term workforce development issues.”
For more information or to interview Councilmember Brown, please contact Press Secretary Michael Price at 202-445-4510 or mprice@dccouncil.us.
If you were interested in this you may also be interested in…
- Kwame Thanks Reinoso and Rhee for Hosting Carpenters’ Challenge at Phelps
- 2010 Budget Reforms, Restructures and Reinvests in the District
- Brown Reviews Progress of Phelps High School with Tour
- Brown’s Amendment Makes Restoring Phelps High School a Reality
Here are some great photos of Phelps’ revitalization…
Are there jobs teaching the trades at this school available?
Ms. Luceri,
You may consider reaching out to the school. Check out the brochure here:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/Learn-About-Schools/Phelps%20Architecture%20Construction%20and%20Engineering%20HS.pdf
If you could take the same approach with regards to the Visual and Communications Arts arena. More specifically, with the anticipated growth in the need for certified and career orientation options for para-professionals in the Museum and Gallery setting, the U.S. Military Industrial complex, Federal and Municipal Governments. It’s seems only natural that this nation’s capital should afford the District’s next generation of youth with the opportunity for staying out of “Arms Way”, both in and out of the Armed service, and on and off the streets and of the nation’s capital.
As Louisiana did it for yours truly, I’m sure you have it within your capacity to do the same for the generation currently under your tenure and/or term of office.
Donald S. Benjamin
Artist/Elder
Glad that Rhee is “praising” technical education. But can you explain why the school will not accept special education children? I know of three special education children who were told that there is no room for them at Phelps. Two of them are now in private placement, one is attending Ballou, his mother didn’t have a good lawyer. And they wonder why kids end up in private placement. They could have had all three children in DCPS, not just one. I can’t wait to see Fenty try to take these kids out of private schools…the lawyers will have a field day and the kids will stay right where they are. And more money will be paid out.
Thanks Kwame for your hard work on job training!
Thank you Councilman brown for all your efforts and for making job training one of your no.1 agenda. This will rejuvenate our economy big time.