The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce has rolled out — with first look for their friends at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — the Ford Next Generation Learning plan for “transforming” high school education.

We wrote about this scheme some months ago in an article that noted some pushback — about costs and about creating “have/have-not” situations in schools — elsewhere

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It’s essentially a new name and design for vocational education, using schools to prepare students for jobs that don’t require college education. It’s not an entirely new concept. See Metro in Little Rock. As this article says, it “streamlines the workforce pipeline.” Sounds a little like “tracking.”

Here’s the laudatory explanation from the chamber provided yesterday to the Democrat-Gazette.

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It will require investments by the four school districts in Pulaski County, with  input promised from the chamber. The Chamber has taken a role in “transforming” the Little Rock School District for several years. It led the charge for state takeover of the Little Rock School District almost five years ago. The district has more “failing” schools now than it did then.

The Ford project may truly be the next great thing. An independent review might be worthwhile, just the same.

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