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Indiana’s Education and the Workforce by 2018

My 10 year old next door neighbor had a tiny shrimp living in a plastic cup with some sort of plant growing on the lid. When I ask him about it, he just rolls his eyes like I wouldn’t understand and said it was a project for GT. The Gifted and Talented program at the Thorntown Elementary school, a program offered at grades second to sixth. The students get together once a week for two hours and focus on science, math and social studies. My little neighbor loves it and gets really upset every time somebody mentions the possibility of cutting the program out of the school budget.

This kid is like many other Indiana kids that are being motivated in school to follow the path of math and science and has develop a thirst for knowledge. If I was a betting person I would put money that my neighbor will go on to finish a 4 year degree or higher. But in Indiana there are also a large amount of students that lack motivation to even finish high school and some others do finish but the education system fail to prepare them for a postsecondary education.

The future workforce in Indiana will require more applicants with postsecondary
education by the year 2018. Will our students be ready? Governor Mitch Daniels has new initiatives for 2011 to take on the education system from K-12, including an evaluation system for teachers. My question to you is what is your roll on this process? What is the roll of the future employers in develop the workforce of the future now? Why are we not getting more involved?

The shrimp died in less than a week and my neighbor wrote a report about it to present at GT. The next day he came home with a holographic bowl with a frog inside…I did not dare to ask what that was about.

- Ana Hernandez