Such a fortuitous approach allows students and funding to remain in local school districts. And for the City of Waltham, it allows our diverse student body to continue our proud tradition as pioneers of industry and technology.
David L. Levinson
Waltham
The writer is former president of Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Conn.
The demand is there — Mass. should do more to meet it
When our whole-house heat pump was put in — a difficult retrofit — the house swarmed with skilled technicians who had learned HVAC in technical high schools and gone on to community colleges to continue to build their skill sets. They could explain the novelties of the technology helpfully. Some may set up their own businesses. They were a virtual United Nations of national origins, but all men.
We’ll need many more such high-skilled, ambitious, problem-solving tradespeople in the future (“A new pathway to vocational training is an alternative to school wait-lists”). Pay the price now. Massachusetts ought to open more vocational schools and encourage girls and young women to pursue these well-paid professions. We’d thus help keep the talent here, build out the middle class, and assure we are ready for a greener, tech-filled future.
Margaret Morganroth Gullette
Newton