I’m not sure the link and reporting on the subject here is reliable. “Construction worker turned author, Ken Rusk” has a point of view to sell. And “Analyzing America” is a political twitter site. To begin with, this author, Ken Rusk, is selling the idea that he started out as a ditch digger and developed a multimillion dollar construction company. I know people who have done this, but the vast majority are sons of construction contractors who developed clients throughout the 60’s and 70’s and passed on work to their sons.
If all you have is a hammer and a high school education and you show up to a construction contractor looking for work, you’ll find that 80% of his crew only speak Spanish, and the rest are bilingual. I’m not a contractor, but I’ve been involved in many building projects and remodeling endeavors, I can say that all of the framing crews and cement crews were Mexicans and workers from Central America. All of their Subs had to be bilingual.
I guarantee that a high school grad that goes on to trade school will find better pay and more opportunities, City Colleges offer an electrician trainee program, that will get s high school grad opportunities. Almost all kids without trade school background usually have family in the trades that get them started and jobs out of HS.
Colleges in the United States are loaded with foreign students looking to eventually work in the United States. Over 35% of Registered Nurses today are from the Philippines, and came the the United States specifically to go to college here. If you sit in on a random college class today, you’ll find at least 1/2 of the students speak English as a second language. They’re not going to college for any reason other than to make good money.
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