Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Copyright 2006 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
The Austin Fire Department has a long way to go to reach Chief J.J. Adame’s worthy goal of being a department that reflects Austin’s diversity.
It’s disappointing that the Fire Department’s new hiring system won’t significantly advance that goal. It produced just three African Americans, 16 Hispanics and four Asians in the 160 top recruits who are vying for 80 firefighter jobs. Obviously, it is going to take more than changing the hiring system to attract more minorities and women to firefighting.
But the Fire Department is doing more. It is growing its own crop of firefighters in a program starting this fall at a local Austin high school.
It makes sense to anchor the program at LBJ High School in East Austin because the school’s large number of minority students usually post a high attendance rate. Attendance is important because the Fire Department’s two-year high school program will be rigorous.
Students will learn the basics of firefighting and emergency medical training. The program mirrors the Texas Commission on Fire Protection’s 465-hour curriculum. Students will be eligible for college credit if they complete the program and pass the state certification test. Twenty-two students are enrolled this year.
The Fire Department’s high school program also will include courses on character education and good decision-making. The latter is aimed at teaching teenagers that bad decisions - particularly those of a criminal nature - can close many career paths, including firefighting. By the end of their senior year, students should be prepared to take the state certification test and become firefighters.
By the end of 2008, the Fire Department could begin reaping its harvest. Though graduates of the program would not be guaranteed jobs with the department, they would have an advantage over most other candidates. And there is the added benefit that Austin-grown firefighters would know their communities and live in the city.
Too many firefighters — six of 10 — live outside of Austin. The city is not only losing the firefighters’ financial support because they don’t pay school or city property taxes, but also their value as leaders in the community. Austin’s citizens have made a huge investment in the city’s public safety employees, paying its firefighters among the highest salaries in Texas. Still, some Austin firefighters live as far away as Fort Worth and Houston — a heck of a commute, but more important, a long way to go in an emergency. Although the LBJ program is not the full answer to the problems of a long-distance firefighting force, it promises some improvement.
The Austin school district is to be commended for making the firefighter program a reality. For years, city officials talked about the program, but it took the efforts of assistant City Manager Rudy Garza working with Austin schools Superintendent Pat Forgione to finally get it going.
A high school diploma doesn’t buy much in the way of salary in today’s market. Firefighting is an exception to that general rule. Austin firefighters earn more than $50,000 by the end of their second year on the job, have good benefits and job security. So why aren’t minorities signing up?
For generations, firefighting has been a family affair, passed from father to son. Departments all over the country reflect that: They are mostly white and male. It’s no different in Austin. It remains to be seen whether the Fire Department’s new hiring system will produce qualified men and women of different ethnicities and races.
Meanwhile, the high school firefighter program is a chance to provide the Austin Fire Department with more racial and ethnic balance.