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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWashington lawmakers want to free up students during the school year to work as farm hands.
WA lawmakers want students to work in farms
Washington lawmakers want to free up students during the school year to work as farm hands.
YAKIMA, Wash.
Washington lawmakers want to free up students during the school year to work as farm hands.
The Yakima Herald-Republic reports that (http://bit.ly/xQ5yc4) a measure introduced Friday would authorize the state Board of Education to allow school districts to adjust the 180-day school year in ways that free students to work in agriculture.
Yakima Republican Rep. Norm Johnson says that the measure would also potentially free millions for transportation of farm workers by freeing up some previously allocated money.
He says the bill is open ended and leaves it up to schools to equal farm work as a senior project or allow colleges to match credits for the labor.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017239379_apwastudentsfarmwork.html
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I have 25 years of direct experience working with American teens and I KNOW that there's no way they will do this work. They don't yet understand how few jobs there are out there. They still have parents who will subsidize them. They are SHOCKED and horrified to discover how hard the work actually is for $10/hr, and usually quit within hours of being hired.
Anyone who has grown up on a farm has RUN as far and as fast away from doing this backbreaking, grueling work. At least my kids have grown up with it and they understand how to do this type of work. It's always a HUGE shock to all the rest of their "friends" who think they want a job but then discover they really, really didn't.
Those kids won't do the ag work. I guarantee it.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)People that do not farm have no clue the hard work and long hours involved. Kids raised on farms know but others won't last more than a day or two.
eridani
(51,907 posts)If they still quit, you will have made your point. So far you just have one data point.
I've refused minimum wage jobs that required 20 mile one way commutes, but was more than glad to commute that far for $80K a year.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)But family farms are not that lucrative. The cost of fuel, equipment, repairs on equipment, fertilizer,seeds, crop insurance (along with farm liability insurance), irrigation costs, trucking, custom combine payment, and I could go on. All this stuff ,with few exceptions, needs to be paid whether it is a good year or not. Crops that are not wiped out by hail, wind, don't even come up due to drought, there is water to irrigate with and last of all what the prices bring at harvest. All this does not include living expenses.
This is why we will never pay 25.00 an hour for farm hands. Hell I worked off the farm and after 40 years as a registered radiographer (x-ray tech) I wasn't making 25 an hour.
edit:
need spell ck
Saving Hawaii
(441 posts)for? Has nobody in eastern WA seen a supply-demand curve before? Is economics unknown out there?
This disturbs me a little bit too. Look, I'm all for school districts encouraging students to be creative and do schoolwork in ways that interest them, but is picking tulip bulbs for $9/hr really senior project material? Seriously?
FLyellowdog
(4,276 posts)So students could be free to work their family's farms?
FLyellowdog
(4,276 posts)Students took off in spring/fall for planting/harvesting...not summers. Sorry.My bad.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)Many communities have a two week school shutdown during the harvest so kids can help, even though fewer actually do these days.