Now that the vote for the funding of the new building for the Franklin County Technical School has passed, I would like to offer another perspective.
A few years ago, my granddaughter was denied entry into the school. While most children, including me, don’t know what they want to spend their lives doing at that age, she was adamant that the only career she wanted to pursue was cosmetology. Her mother and aunt graduated from the Tech School, and her aunt has had a successful career as a hairdresser.
I had a neighbor several years ago who went to the Tech School. He was brilliant, graduated at the top of his class, got a free pass to UMass, and went on to get two master’s degrees from a prestigious university. He had the capability to succeed anywhere.
Meanwhile, my granddaughter has graduated, faced with the prospect of going to Springfield or New Hampshire to get the education she could have had for free. How excited we were to read that the Tech School would be adding cosmetology to their adult education options. However, they did not have a grant to fund it, so it would cost $10,000. Then the program was postponed because of the lack of funding (I have been told).
My point is, now that the additional expense to all the towns for the new building has been approved, I hope that the school will make every effort to continue and expand the options for adult technical training and make the fullest use possible of the new facility. While there is no guarantee that the children having the advantage of good technical training will make the best use of it, the adults who go out of their way to seek it certainly will. Then perhaps it will compensate for the additional cost to those who have to pick up the tab.
Judith Truesdell
Greenfield