Re: “Undereducated, unemployed youth could be an opportunity or a new cost” (Dec. 10, Opinion):
Cities preserve roads and bridges as a result of reliability issues. We decide them by whether or not they maintain underneath strain. But we not often apply that very same commonplace to the trail from faculty to maturity.
The editorial board is true to focus on the almost 100,000 younger folks in Washington who’re neither in class nor working. Disconnection like this doesn’t occur in a single day. It grows when the programs round younger individuals are by no means constructed or maintained to be dependable.
Having served as a superintendent, I understand how a lot weight is positioned on commencement charges. They matter. However a diploma doesn’t inform a youngster what to do on Monday. When our accountability ends on the ceremony, transitions turn into fragile.
Expertise grows inside programs. When these programs break aside, it leaks.
Washington doesn’t lack pathways. It lacks the relationships and navigation programs that assist younger folks transition from faculty to alternatives as adults.
Upkeep issues. Expertise is already right here. What Washington should construct is an infrastructure sturdy sufficient to hold it ahead.
Keisha Scarlett, Ed.D., Seattle
