I think it is great when businesses partner with schools. We have a small family business, and I do the hiring. I can tell you that a whole lot of school does not guarantee that someone will be a good employee. It means you had a whole lot of school. There are certain qualities that you just can’t learn in school like having good moral character, being punctual, and good stuff like that. So when a business teams up with a school, it can really be a good opportunity for students to understand what is required in the real world where you can go to the bathroom without a hall pass and you can get fired for being late.

AT&T is donating $100 million with the stated purpose of increasing the graduation rate.

AT&T will also give 100,000 students the opportunity to “shadow” AT&T employees on the job, “to give them a firsthand look at the skills they will need to succeed,” the company said. The cost of the 400,000 AT&T employee hours to be devoted to this program are not included in the $100 million pledge.

That is the part I like the best. Kids need to see how things work out there on the job. My kids routinely come in to the office with me. Makes for a crazy day, but I hope they get a sense of what I do here. I even put them to work making copies and such, as they are old enough to do the task. Right now, most of the fights are over who gets to run the shredder. We call that job training, homeschool style.

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