North Carolina's push to raise high school graduation requirements so that all students have the necessary coursework to prepare them for transition to a four-year college education is laudable on its face.

After all, the global economy is going to demand that the next generation of workers come armed with skills to compete against the best and the brightest from around the world.

So, what's the issue?

Simply this: Not every teenager who graduates from high school wants to go to college, nor does every rewarding career require a four-year college degree. In fact, fewer than half of North Carolina's graduating seniors say they plan to go directly to a four-year college or university.

For many of those students, technical and vocational education offers an attractive alternative by providing the training to enter a challenging, well-paying career in advanced manufacturing. And that is exactly the type of education that seems to be in the cross-hairs of governments today.

According to a news report last month, the current federal budget proposal would cut funding for vocational education by nearly half -- which could cost North Carolina $21 million. Couple that with already tight school budgets and a mandate for more required college-prep courses and it's not difficult to envision a significant reduction in vocational education offerings.

Indeed, some school administrators indicated that vocational and other "elective" courses -- and their teachers -- could be cut to make room for the additional math and foreign language courses now required by the state.

The timing couldn't be worse.

Manufacturing output has increased nationwide by an average of 3.7 percent per year over the last 50 years, for a total increase of 700 percent. Consider that: a 700 percent increase!

According to the National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturing contributes $64 billion to the North Carolina economy each year and employs 567,000 people in the state.

The nation's decades-long manufacturing boom has resulted in a shortage of skilled workers that threatens the sector's future success. Half of the companies responding to a survey commissioned by NAM said their workers have inadequate basic skills, such as attendance, timeliness and a work ethic.

* Forty-six percent reported inadequate problem-solving skills.

* Thirty-six percent cited insufficient reading, writing and communication skills.

* Eighty-three percent said those shortages are affecting their ability to serve customers.

* Nearly three-quarters believe that a high-performance work force is the most important driver of future business success.

The NAM survey called the gap between available skills and the requirements for modern global manufacturing "our nation's most critical business issue."

At Cummins, we are painfully aware of the effect this skills shortage has on our ability to compete with other global manufacturers -- and on America's competitiveness. We routinely struggle to find skilled machine repair workers, materials management professionals and talented manufacturing IT professionals.

For companies such as Cummins and states such as North Carolina, the stakes are high. We employ about 1,600 people at our Consolidated Diesel Company joint venture in Whitakers.

In the nearly quarter-century since CDC began production, the plant has become vital to our success. Likewise, CDC has become an integral part of Whitakers, Rocky Mount and the surrounding communities.

That partnership is possible due to the success of CDC, which increasingly is being challenged by a lack of available skilled employees. Our North Carolina operations aren't alone: The biggest issue in virtually every community in which Cummins does business is finding enough workers skilled in the advanced manufacturing, technology and statistical methods to perform the complex work.

To be clear, in no way do I or Cummins oppose raising standards for high school students to better prepare them for college, as can be shown by our public support for a four-year University of North Carolina campus in Rocky Mount.

What is troubling is that some at the state and national level seem to believe that, in this case, educational standards are an either-or proposition. We shouldn't have to choose between supporting our children who want to pursue a four-year college education and those who want to take a different but no less rewarding path that includes technical or vocational education that can lead directly to a high-paying manufacturing job.

In its zeal to "do right" by its high school students, North Carolina should not lose sight of the goals and dreams of those many students whose talents and interests point them toward the two-year technical degree that is so highly valued in advanced manufacturing.

(Joe Loughrey is president and chief operating officer of Indiana-based Cummins Inc. and chairman of The Manufacturing Institute, the research and education arm of the National Association of Manufacturers.)

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