A few years ago the SO’s neurologist went to the local trade college to learn welding (he’s one of those people who never stop learning, ‘ya know). When he finished the course, passed the proficiency exam and go the certificate, he had if framed by the same people who’d done his medical degrees and licenses and hung it on the wall of his office with all his other parchment.

My kind of person.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought your point was that if too many things are privatized, there would be no standards for such things as welding. The point I was trying to make is that there are private professional standards organizations (Underwriters Laboratories as another example I’m sure you are familiar with) which keep industry standards high with little to no government intervention.

It seems that we are on the same page. Your comments on NCLB are also spot-on.

From the wikipedia article on NCLB:

Some local schools are only funding instruction for core subjects or for remedial special education. NCLB puts pressure on schools to guarantee that nearly all students will meet the minimum skill levels (set by each state) in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but requires nothing beyond these minimums. Programs that are not essential to achieving the mandated minimum skills are neglected or canceled by those districts.

NCLB’s main focus from the time it was implemented has been skills in reading, writing and mathematics, areas where the United States feels it must succeed in order to be competitive in the current global market. However, as the years have passed since it went into effect in 2002, an alarming trend has emerged: the detrimental effect this law has had on subject areas and classes which are not held accountable, or are testable, by the NCLB mandate.

As Tina Beveridge states in one article; “The long-term effects of NCLB are not yet evident, but the short-term effects have been detrimental to all non tested subjects, especially those courses that are typically considered electives.” She goes on to state that in the current time of budget crisis, almost all of the funding that schools receive from the government stemming from NCLB are now allocated to only the testable subjects as well as the tests themselves.

Even if these certifications were not required (I’m not entirley sure they are), a non-certified welder would be very hard pressed to find employment as few owners/contractors/engineers who would be willing to take on the liability that comes with using non-certified welders.

And compared with a most degree and even most vocational training, AWS certification is realitivley inexpensive and much more practical.

Local communities are the best candidates for determining how their school should be run and what they should teach.

-Note that is not the same as “keep all foreigners out.”

If you’re thinking “WTF” on immigration, it’s likely that we’ve got a bridge too far in our opinion there – as a general rule.

However, in *this* case I’d say that trying to attract skilled tradesmen if we have a shortage is more similar to our H-1B visa program than it is to having unskilled foreign labor cleaning houses, busing tables, doing yardwork, or picking vegetables.

Even if you disagree that we should allow the unskilled labor from Mexico to come here, attracting skilled tradesmen, which will be well-paid and not “welfare sponges”, is defensible.