Robert Reich Wants Students to March Like the Germans

September 1st, 2013 8:38 AM

The Sunday newspaper supplement Parade magazine has a cover story on "Putting America Back to Work," and promises as a guru "Robert Reich on the future of manufacturing jobs." Inside, Reich's article is titled "What America Needs Now."

Like a good liberal, Reich insisted  "we should follow Germany's lead." America's high schools need a fifth year for what liberals call the working class:

More than 12 million students are projected to drop out of high school over the next decade; the millions more with diplomas face bleak job prospects. Many young people (and their parents) still assume that the only gateway to good jobs is a four-year college education.

But we can learn from Germany, a world leader in technical training, and offer two-year degrees in manufacturing technology, starting the last year of high school and extending a year beyond. This education reconfiguration could solve two problems at once—and strengthen the economy.

Leftist talk radio host Thom Hartmann loved the "13th grade" idea: "there are choices other than a 100 thousand dollar degree that gets your picture taken with a cardboard cutout of Trump."

PS: I was on vacation two Sundays ago when Parade published another gooey cover story about Michelle Obama, co-authored by former ABC reporter and feminist Lynn Sherr. Check out a little of this:

Nearly five years after moving into the White House, Michelle Obama  could not look more at home. Posing in the formal Green Room, she appears both relaxed and invigorated, embracing the undefined (and undefinable) roles of Spouse in Chief, Role Model in Chief, and Mom in Chief. But it’s the last one that makes the first lady shine brightest of all. Put her in a room with kids—whether her own or the nation’s—and she glows...

As she sat with Parade the following day, Mrs. Obama was regal in a magenta sheath yet so down-to-earth that she quickly fluffed the cushion of an antique couch between photo takes.