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| Brownsville legendary blogger Juan Montoya (graphic courtesy of Diego Lee Rot) |
Published in Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun blog today was a response to our reporting on the sorry state of TSC's vocational program; $2.6M in state-of-the art welding equipment laying idle, essentially unused all summer, promises of the AWS welding certificates necessary for employment in the industry, but never delivered, etc.
El Rrun Rrun's blog offering was likely not a story written by Juan Montoya himself, but, as noted, a "Special to El Rrun Rrun," likely written someone at TSC, although almost certainly not TSC Trustee Adela Garza.
Juan's typical, daily modus operandi is to submit a story by around 11:00 AM and then head to 14th Street. Unless the political swirl of last summer has altered his go-to beverage, Juan is drinking a Bud Light right now partially financed by the publishing of the "news" alert from TSC.
Unfortunately, the article has some inaccuracies and partial truths. Tedious as it is, we'll deal with the misinformation here.
"to administer the AWS exam, TSC became and Education Institution Member with an authorized AWS testing facility on February 2022, the only one in Cameron County."
That's untrue. TSC was not AWS certified until August 2022 and certainly not on May 19, 2021 when Tom Tynan published this gushing report on the TSC website:
"More than 40 Brownsville Independent School District high school welding students have completed their American Welding Society certifying exams at TSC and more than half passed. It has been a big day for those students, their district and TSC."
The problem is that, despite taking an AWS "certifying" exam, not one of those "passing" students received an AWS certificate, an absolute necessity to "getting a job" in the industry. They only received worthless TSC Certificates of Completion.
Ask any employer at the Port of Brownsville if they'll hire a welder who doesn't possess an AWS certificate. Ask any LNG plant the same thing.
Oh, and ask SpaceX if they'll hire ANY TSC graduate as a welder.
The brutal, unvarnished truth is that TSC has made a wonderful financial investment in the equipment needed to teach the various schools of industrial welding, at least $2,600,000 in equipment alone, not to mention six, yes 6, welding instructors on salary as I type this, yes, on salary, but with no students to teach.
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At this very moment, Dr. Jesus Roberto Rodriguez, President of the TSC Board of Trustees has organized the six otherwise unoccupied welding instructors into a phone bank set-up, working the phones to call prospective welding students, wherever they can be located, to fill up the empty welding classrooms at TSC.
As shown in the charts above, TSC schedules welding classes for one month, then, when no students or an insufficient number of students to sustain a class enroll, the classes are rescheduled for the following month and then for the month after that.
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Just a comment on the process of gaining the document absolutely necessary for employment.
Certified Welding Inspector Matt Richard (he wants the accent in Richard to be on the last syllable as in rich-ARD', sort of a French intonation) has a definite role in the issuance of AWS certificates.
After he conducts an AWS Certification Test (Who takes a certification test without expectation of receiving the certificate?), it's anticipated that he will take the students' welding samples to his Corpus Christi lab and submit them to the "bend" test.
The samples are bent by machine, then examined for cracks. If the weld maintains its integrity with no cracks despite the bending procedure, it can be certified and the student recognized for the requisite skill.
Somehow and for some reason, this process is not being fully performed by staff.
After this article appears, TSC will again hire El Rrun Rrun's Juan Montoya to write a response for pay.
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Juan Montoya, Jim Barton and a bottle of Bud Light at the Sportsman's Club, sometimes called the Sportsman's Lounge |
I have absolutely no problem with that. Perhaps, Juan will use the TSC remuneration to spring for some Bud Lights.
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| TSC's currently unused $2,600,000 welding facility |
TSC is a joke of a school, you walk around the ITEC campus and it looks like an abandoned establishment. You ask for information on courses that are advertised on the wall and they no longer have the programs available. What kind of school does that. Got to hand it to them, whoever pulled that stunt has a sense of humor. Walking around the campus gave me scam vibes like if this was a front for something.
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong on one account for sure, and missing the rest of the story which is key. Mike Hernandez paid for the story. If you remember he closed his training facility after he could not get any certifications, leaving the students for the most part without jobs. What happened to that old fire works building the Port bought for job training? Another Mike fiasco. I know for a fact of two graduates who were denied good underwater jobs in Corpus because the certificate of completion is not a certification. They both started at BISD and were told if they finish at TSC they would get hired in Corpus. Neither works in welding. The training was worthless. The story is finding graduates telling their story about finding work. Then we know the truth. You are wrong about when Juan publishes. By 6:30 a.m. he has most of his stories published. He will publish a few comments and then disappear for hours. I do not the truth. But I know about TSC as a paid tutor. They are not teaching anything. They may lose their certification because they have too many adjuncts who sit there as babysitters while students self learn on computers which are replete with mistakes. Several universities in Texas have already received their warning letters of decertification over this issue. Associate Professors refuse to teach Freshman courses so they hire adjuncts to work as babysitters. They pay so little no qualified candidate will agree to work for them. They do not teach. Everything is done on a computer while the adjunct sits their and baby sits them. Community colleges are important, but TSC is well past its time and should close.
ReplyDeleteActually, I was aware of the Mike Hernandez III factor and I'm in the middle of writing a story on that now. If you wish to share some contact info, I'd like to speak with you.
DeleteTSC needs to fire people that don’t put the students first.. It’s unfortunate they let go of the talent that stands out amongst the rest. I wonder who’s making the calls at TSC. Who’s the master of puppets. What’s the agenda of the institution since it is clear that the priority is not in the development of education.
ReplyDeleteI have no clue about mike Hernandez character but if you want the real story all you need to do is talk to the students. They don’t have a reason to lie. They don’t benefit from anyone getting fired or hired.
ReplyDeleteBrownsville Observer, is it true that a welder to get his/her license has to be accompanied by a Certified welder ? The Certified welder talks to the future welder about the task to be done and when the welder completes the task the Certified welder gives the OK and then they turn in their work to be inspected. I really do not know if this is true or if this is just another way to get your License as a welder.
ReplyDelete