"In years to come they may discover
What the air we breathe and the life we lead
Are all about
But it won't be soon enough
Soon enough for me
No it won't be soon enough
Soon enough for me "
McCartney
McCartney's words quoted above weren't merely about education, vocational education even, but about life's opportunities and meaning.
For Brownsville's young men and young women it's always been about finding a way, a vehicle to enable upward movement into a standard of living at least providing basic necessities.
So many in the past have just had to move out of town, escape what's so frequently been designated our country's "poorest region."
Those that have left are likely the relatives you occasionally visit in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.
It's with that spirit in mind that we've been following the successes and failures of local vocational education, because, unquestionably, that's one of the tools Brownsville's graduating high school seniors and their parents count on to upgrade that standard of living.
Let's shift gears a bit from our recent articles, turning our attention from welding to another super-necessary skill set at the Port of Brownsville, SpaceX, etc.; pipefitting.
The fantastic news is that TSC via its vocational education arm, ITEC, announced pipefitting classes for 2023 and those classes did actually start 1/26 of this year!
What a wonderful opportunity for our city's recent HS graduates!
If there is a downside, it's that TSC first announced and promoted such a program in 2019, but the school was just not able to get that program off the ground.
Again, in 2020, no pipefitting taught at TSC.
Posted below is another document, dated 12/05, 2019, showing approval to purchase pipefitting equipment in the amount of $74,009.
Now, as the memo above indicates, a request was made for pipefitting supplies for the 2021-2022 school year, although the program did not actually start until 1/26/2023.
Perhaps, Brownsville's high school graduates of 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 are now gainfully employed, just not as pipefitters, unless they got their education someplace other than TSC or simply moved out of town like previous generations of Brownsville high school graduates.
Thank you for presenting the situation of vocational courses and how important they are for our community. The trend now is for parents not to send their kids to a 4 year university...so the colleges have to work harder in helping students.
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