The past, present, and future of CTE 

On a steamy day in late July, Donald Trump signed the first significant education bill of his presidency. Upon signing the bipartisan Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, Congress and the president managed to reauthorize a $1.2-billion education program that should have been reauthorized in 2012. Previous attempts during the Obama administration to reauthorize “Perkins,” as the program is commonly called (for the Carl T. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act), fizzled, but this time around the administration had both Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and First Daughter Ivanka Trump pushing for reauthorization. Their involvement, coupled with a bipartisan effort in Congress, helped seal the deal, and the bill was approved and signed by the president in record time.  

Policy makers and business leaders have for some time been focused on career and technical education (CTE) as an important part of college- and career-readiness. That’s a welcome change from the past, when any coursework geared toward workforce preparation (as opposed to college preparation) was usually relegated to the students deemed not ready or not smart enough for college. That dark age of CTE has thankfully passed and now most people — including educators and parents — seem to agree that there is value in emphasizing both academic knowledge and career preparation in schools. The 2017 PDK poll made that point loud and clear: 82% of Americans expressed support for classes that teach job or career skills, even if that means students might spend less time in academic classes.  

The dark age of CTE has thankfully passed and now most people seem to agree that there is value in emphasizing both academic knowledge and career preparation in schools.