(warm music) (grinder whines) - [Pamela] Tonight: Rhode Island's education rethink.

- The skills they're gonna learn here, they're gonna be able to use the rest of their life.

- [Michelle] Then: nautical folk art in Newport.

- Scrimshaw is the art of engraving on ivory or bone.

- And examining Governor McKee's voter disapproval problem with Ted Nesi.

(warm gentle music) (warm gentle music continues) Good evening.

Welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We begin tonight with the changing paths of education.

- Today, working toward a career in boat building, firefighting, and graphic design can start in high school where technical training courses have exploded.

Contributor Steph Machado reports on how both students and educators here in Rhode Island are seeing the future of work in a very different light.

(grinder whines) - [Steph] In between their regular math and English classes, these students at Cranston East High School take to the grinding wheel, beveling the edges of pipes so they can fit together to build a submarine.

- [Chris] Open and close.

If you wanna use two hands, you can, okay?

- [Steph] Across the room in this plumbing and pipe fitting class.

- Remember when you tighten those toilets up, don't crank on them.

- [Steph] There's a makeshift residential home where students learn to install a toilet and shower.

Luis Camacho is one of the students.

- If I was looking back when I was young, I would never expect this.

And I never knew I was gonna go into plumbing either.

Freshman year I would introduced to it.

First thing I like noticed was Mr. Richards.

I love the program since then.

- [Steph] Chris Richard is their teacher.

Once a special educator, he moved into the plumbing and pipe-fitting program and helped set up this state-of-the-art space in collaboration with Electric Boat.

- In the ocean, under water, at great pressures so you need to have everything welded.

- [Steph] Many of Richard's students are planning to go into the trades, but he argues it's a worthwhile class for everyone.

I even got a chance to learn how to use this ProPress to fit two pipes together.

- [Chris] And you're gonna squeeze the trigger.

That's it.

You're done.

- Cool.

- I just wanna expose them to it as well.

The skills they're gonna learn here, they're gonna be able to use the rest of their life.

Using a drill, using an impact driver, fixing a toilet, fixing a sink or whatever it may be.

You know, they're gonna have basic skills that they can, you know, they can fix things on their own.

We're in a very throwaway society, so "It doesn't work?

Throw it away," you know?

So it may be just they need to tighten something.

- [Steph] Across town at Cranston West High School.

- There's enough tanks for everyone to do salinity.

Check your pH level.

It should be around 8.4.

- [Steph] These students are learning aquaculture, the science of raising plants and animals in water.

- It is a crustacean with two mollusks living inside of the shell.

- [Steph] Their teacher, Leonard Baker, says many of his students go on to study marine biology in college and they bring with them eight URI college credits they got for free in high school.

- A lot of students don't know what they want to do and exposing them to different curriculum such as life sciences or even the welding and, you know, the plumbing program gives them an option.

- [Steph] These classes are just two of Cranston's 23 Career and Technical Education programs, hands-on training in high school that prepares students for a wide variety of careers, some that involve going on to college and others that don't.

- Over the past eight years, we've doubled our available programs.

- [Steph] Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse says, interest in Career and Tech Education, or CTE, is so high, nearly two thirds of Cranston's high school students are enrolled.

The district has to hold a lottery because there are more students signing up than seats available.

- We've really had to demystify the old way of thinking that if you go to Career and Tech Education, formerly known as voc school, that that would preclude you from going on to higher ed.

And in fact, we've had several of our valedictorians who have gone through our Career and Tech programming.

- [Steph] Cranston has had a Career and Tech Center on the West Campus for decades, but in recent years expanded so CTE is offered at both of the city's high schools.

- And I think this is a great time for them to be able to explore their strengths and weaknesses and their interests before they get to college and they're halfway through and they're a hundred thousand dollars in debt.

And then realize, "Oh, this isn't for me."

- [Steph] It's happening all over the state with programs now in every public school district other than Block Island.

And student participation has exploded.

There were roughly 9,000 students enrolled in CTE programs statewide in the 2017-2018 school year.

Just six years later, more than 20,000 students are participating.

- It's been a very dramatic change.

- [Steph] Bill Bryan is the chair of the Rhode Island CTE Board of Trustees, which was formed to help guide the state's CTE strategy, in particular, to respond to the actual needs of the workforce.

- Vocational education was really focused on specific technical skills.

Career and Technical Education is very different.

Career and Technical Education is intended to provide students a competitive advantage.

- So this is not what we used to call vo-tech.

- Not at all.

- [Steph] The results speak for themselves.

Career and Technical Education students graduate at a higher rate than their peers according to the most recent state data, with 92% of CTE concentrators graduating in four years, compared to an 84% graduation rate among all students statewide.

Test scores for CTE students are also a few percentage points higher than the statewide numbers.

And why do you think that is?

- Because I think they're spending a lot of their time on things that are active learning and hands-on.

And for the student who doesn't want to sit in a class and participate in a lecture about Chaucer or Shakespeare, they can kind of get through a class knowing that in the next class they will be building something with their hands or working with the fish in aquaculture or working on a 3D printer or a robot.

- It gives 'em a reason to come to school.

- It certainly does.

- [Steph] If there's a downside when it comes to CTE, it's the price tag.

Many programs require large facilities, expensive equipment, and teachers with specialized skills.

This three-pond system in Cranston's aquaculture class alone costs $23,000.

- Ponds break, heaters break, a lot of the equipment is consumable.

The fish food has to be repurchased.

It's not like buying a set of textbook that can last 10 years.

- [Steph] But Baker argues it's well worth it for students to put into practice what high schoolers used to only learn from textbooks.

- When I was learning science in high school, it was turn the page and look at our biology book.

We're still learning the same concepts, but they have to apply it right away.

So they do have a classroom where I give them notes, they learn the anatomy, physiology, and then I'm like, "Well, let's go take this knowledge and let's apply it."

And the true test of whether you understand it is, can you keep the fish alive?

- [Steph] Cranston gets much of its funding for CTE from other public school districts, about $2 million this year.

That's because state law lets students apply to other public school districts' CTE programs, and the money follows the student.

- Unless your homeschool has exactly the same program as the neighboring district, you can go to pretty much any CTE program.

If you live in Cranston and something intrigues you in Westerly and we don't have exactly the same program, you can go to Westerly.

- [Steph] On the flip side, it means school districts without a lot of CTE programs lose out on millions of dollars in tuition sending their students across town lines.

- Sometimes students want to go to another community for a variety of reasons, and we needed to manage this because it really becomes economics for a community if their kids are leaving and they have to take their public education dollars and send them to another community to follow the kid.

- If the industries are lobbying for this and it's benefiting them because they're getting workers, should they be contributing to the funding?

- The answer is "yes."

But the answer is "how?".

Part of the challenge is that education is local choice.

You can't tell a school district what to do, and we don't have a mechanism today to incentivize them to do what's best for the future economic benefit of the state.

- While CTE programs were multiplying over the last seven years, state leaders on Smith Hill were level funding the program.

Until this year when the General Assembly approved an additional $2 million for schools to open new CTE programs that don't exist yet in Rhode Island.

Is Rhode Island doing enough?

- We can do more.

I wish we did more because I think that would help our attendance in high school.

I think if students were able to participate in programs that truly interested them and they saw it as valuable beyond high school, I think that would help our attendance, engagement, students really being happy in school.

- [Steph] That's certainly true for Luis who spent his summer training at Electric Boat before coming back to school for his senior year.

- I look forward more to coming to school now.

You know, now I got something working towards, oh, I know I'm gonna do this for a living, so I gotta put my effort into school in general.

Get good grades, come in.

- High school is really changing.

It's definitely not the same-old classroom.

- Yeah, and I think ultimately students need to pursue what they're passionate about.

And no decisions have been made yet on which districts will receive a share of that new $2 million for CTE programs.

Look for more of Steph's reporting on this story in "The Boston Globe" at globe.com/ri.

We now turn to scrimshaw art.

Photojournalist Michael Jones recently spent time with a master scrimshander in Newport, who gives us his take on the ancient art of engraving.

(gentle music) - Scrimshaw is considered a folk art so most anybody can do and make a piece of scrimshaw.

It takes time, it takes a lot of practice.

(claps) I'm Brian Kiracofe and this is my take on scrimshaw.

Scrimshaw is the art of engraving on ivory or bone.

The sailors were at sea hunting the whale for the oil.

That would take anywhere from two to five years was an average voyage.

No one really knows the origin of the word scrimshaw.

It does mean a lazy person or killing time.

So the sailors were doing scrimshaw in their downtime between the whale hunt.

They would scrape down a a whale tooth with their jackknife and sand it with usually shark skin and then buff the tooth with chamois and get it somewhat polished enough that they can scratch a design into the tooth.

From there, rub paint over it, or for the most part it was lampblack from the whale-oil lamps.

The early scrimshaw onboard whale ships, especially on whale teeth, were mostly scenes that they saw every day, but they also did designs that were reminding them of home.

You see a number of women on whale teeth and you know, you can date it almost by the attire that they were wearing.

So a lot of times they're in Victorian outfits and often the sailor would take a picture from a magazine and lay it out on a whale tooth, put little pin pricks into that, like a connect-the-dot type of idea, and then come back and do the engraving.

So they weren't as artistic as a lot of the modern scrimshaw artists are.

But there were some absolutely beautiful pieces done by the sailors on board a ship.

In the 1960s, President Kennedy was a scrimshaw collector.

There's photographs of him in the Oval office and a whale tooth on the desk.

It was said that Jackie Kennedy was, you know, buying pieces for him for his collection.

He was buried with a scrimshaw piece.

And then the art became much more popular when people realized that he was a major collector.

(comfortable music) (comfortable music continues) I've been there 38 years.

We sell mostly my artwork.

I have other artists that I work with that specialize more in working on whale teeth.

I like to work in miniature, so I do a lot of the jewelry and pocket knives and cuff links.

A lot of items for men.

Do pendants, earrings, bracelets for women.

When I'm doing a piece, often I'll look at the ivory and based on the grain pattern and just the variations in the natural material, that'll help determine what design I'm doing.

And from that point, it's just a free-hand engraving, scratching the design and when I'm finished I just rub a paint over it, wipe the paint off, and there's the design.

It takes a lot of manual dexterity, focus.

I've found I do better work when I can sit at my work bench and have no distractions.

Over the years I've had to go towards magnification, get into your 50s and you can't see up close.

(ethereal music) Prior to 1972, there were no restrictions on taking and killing animals.

And at that time we realized that we better start protecting these animals that were either going extinct or on the path.

Congress passed the Endangered Species Law.

In 1973, they expanded with the Marine Mammals Protection Act and that specifically covered whales and walrus, and you know, any marine mammal.

There are exemptions that allow us to work with the old materials.

The laws are strict.

It's five years in prison and half-a-million-dollar fine for breaking the Endangered Species laws.

So everything that we work with has documents, has paperwork that shows its origin prior to the dates.

And you know, we can follow that law and still work with, you know, the same materials that the sailors worked with.

Scrimshaw has an appeal because of the history.

Very uniquely American.

It's called one of the few original American folk arts.

So a certain number of people will always like the history, like that this was something that started in America.

It's a very unique art form and I think people will always be interested in it as a folk art.

Just the uniqueness about it.

(claps) I'm Brian Kiracofe and that was my take on scrimshaw.

- Finally tonight on this episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and WPRI12's politics editor Ted Nesi discuss what a recent poll reveals about how well elected officials in Rhode Island are doing their jobs and why the majority of Rhode Islanders disapprove of how Governor McKee is doing his.

- Ted, it's good to be with you.

A new poll by Salve Regina University's Pell Center gives us a look how Rhode Islanders feel about several elected officials.

Let's start with Governor Dan McKee's job approval rating.

Only 34% of voters approve of McKee's performance as governor while 56% disapprove.

Now, these numbers are slightly lower than in the Pell Center's previous poll in June.

But Ted, overall, these are not good numbers for McKee.

- No, it's not where he wants to be, Michelle.

I'd say once you account for the margin of error in a poll, he's basically flat from the last poll dated in June.

But that's bad news because he wasn't in good shape in June.

He's still not in good shape now in September.

And you know, I know the 2026 election for governor feels far away to people, especially with a big election right around the corner.

But what I've learned over many years of covering politics is the year before the election really sets the table for the election year.

And that's when you know, key influential people decide, "Who am I backing, who's strong, who's weak?"

Fundraising numbers are important and I think McKee, with numbers like this, is gonna struggle to make the case that he can win again.

At least, you know, win convincingly to fellow Democrats and union leaders, people like that, unless we see a sudden turnaround.

- And that is why you hear more prominent Democrats talking about potentially running for governor in two years.

- Right.

Helena Foulkes, obviously, the former CVS executive, she's been running against him basically since the day the last primary ended.

So that's not a surprise.

But you see, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, very clearly signaling he's waiting in the wings if and when Dan McKee decides this isn't gonna work out.

Then we saw this week secretary of state, Gregg Amore, another Democrat with a lot of good connections telling Dan McGowan at "The Boston Globe," he'd be interested if McKee doesn't run.

That's just not the kind of thing you would see if these Democrats, who can, they can read a poll, didn't think there was a real chance McKee's not the Democratic, because both of them, I should say, say they will not run against McKee, which means they're saying they're not sure McKee will be running.

- Now one name that we have heard as a possibility running against McKee is Peter Neronha, the attorney general.

This survey tested his job approval rating for the very first time.

41% of voters approve of the job that Neronha is doing as AG while 26% disapprove.

Nearly one third of voters have no opinion of him.

Overall, it sounds like he's in positive territory, but if you're Neronha and you're term limited as AG, what do you do with all of this voter enthusiasm?

Where do you go?

- That's the question, Michelle, right?

As you said, he has talked about running for governor, but I'd say more recently, Attorney General Neronha has been pretty clear he's not gonna run for governor.

He's close to Helena Foulkes.

I think he's likely to support her if current trends continue.

He certainly won't support McKee.

Those two do not get along very well.

Neronha told me a couple weeks ago that he wishes he could run for a third term for attorney general.

That's what he'd love to, he loves his current job.

He can't because of term limits.

So that's the question he's left with.

Some people are talking about, could he run for lieutenant governor?

The downside is very little authority and power in that office.

The upside is he has the bully pulpit.

He is a known figure.

So he'd get attention if he wanted to talk about issues like healthcare and climate change, things that matter to him.

There is an incumbent Democrat, of course Sabina Matos, but her numbers were pretty weak in this poll as well.

And it's widely expected she will probably get a Democratic primary challenge too.

So Neronha at least is gonna be floated for that.

- It's also eyeopening that nearly one third of voters have no opinion of Neronha, who has been attorney general for six years.

- Yeah, and we saw even higher unknowns for some of the other elected officials in this survey, Michelle, which is a good reminder to you, to me, to the people watching a program like this, that many voters don't pay close attention to state affairs, don't have strong opinions, which is why sometimes we can be surprised at election time.

- All right, let's look at what the Pell Center found when voters were asked about Rhode Island's congressional delegation.

Longtime U.S.

Senator Jack Reed leads the list with a 60% job approval rating, the highest of any elected official in the survey, U.S.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is at 49% approval, Congressman Gabe Amo is at 47% approval in the 1st House district and Congressman Seth Magaziner is at 42% approval in the 2nd district.

All of these officials, except Reed, are on the ballot this year.

What do you make of these numbers?

- Well, first, Reed's durable strong rating is kind of remarkable.

He's been the top-polling elected official around as long as I've been a reporter here.

He's not up for election, as you said, until 2026.

The others, they're not up in the stratosphere, relatively speaking, where Reed is.

But you know, being in the 40s is pretty comfortable positioning for a Democrat in a Democratic state like Rhode Island.

Certainly, the two freshman congressmen have work to do to get better known among voters still.

They've only been in office a year or two.

But you know, you saw elsewhere in the poll that they are all up by double digits in their efforts to win reelection because they're facing little-known, underfunded Republican challengers in a Democratic state in a presidential year where the Democratic presidential nominee will probably win.

So that's why these folks look to be in very good shape, even if they're not up at Jack Reed-level approval ratings.

- Yeah, so still encouraging numbers for them?

- Yeah, I think they're fine with this.

They'd always like it to be higher, but they're fine with this.

- Yeah.

Thanks so much, Ted.

Good to see you.

- Great to be here.

- And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and X and visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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