America once had a vigorous system of vocational education, apprenticeship, and workforce training, both in and out of schools. Other countries, like Germany, still do, but over recent decades we have disinvested in such programs. Part of the reason is the rise of the “college for all” mantra, reflecting the belief that a college degree is the ticket to success in the contemporary economy.
~ Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS
The Need: Our current vocational education program (CTE)* is inadequate both for students and for our economy: Massachusetts lacks the skilled labor necessary for a stable and healthy economy and fails to provide desired educational opportunities for many students. Employers complain of acute labor shortages in the construction trades and in advanced manufacturing and high tech, and those shortages will grow in coming years.
- Trades: Retirement is rapidly depleting the already limited number of skilled tradespeople:
- The average age of a plumber is 54.
- The average age of an electrician is 55.
- High Tech and Advanced Manufacturing: The state faces a growing shortage of “middle-skill” workers needed for a wide range of technical positions. More than 40% of MA manufacturers report difficulty in finding skilled workers. The state’s vocational schools provide high quality education that gives students the skills and experience needed to fill these critical, well paid jobs. And these CTE schools offer an education that is well suited to the needs and interests of many students. The best current research suggests that high-quality CTE programs have a range of benefits for young people, including increased earnings, greater engagement in school, higher rates of college enrollment, and enhanced career skills.^
The Problem: Across Massachusetts CTE schools are in demand and help to prepare students for jobs needed in the trades and high tech. But there is a severe shortfall in the number of seats in these schools:
- At least 4,000 students have applied and are currently on a waitlist to attend a CTE program, most of them located in Gateway Cities and other low-income communities.
- At least 2,000 more students want to attend but are not served by any technical school.
There’s a significant social justice problem of who has access to these schools. The state’s public vocational high schools have restrictive admissions policies, often using grades, discipline and attendance records, recommendations, and interviews. The impact of these policies has been to lessen the numbers of students of color and lower-income students gaining admission, even though these are public high schools, which should be equally open to all.
Access to CTE is a Critical Need: Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts’s (PDM) Education Working Group has identified access to high quality CTE as a critical need. A stable and equitable system for high-quality CTE allows students and the economy to thrive in the future. Solving these problems requires action in at least three broad categories:
- More seats for students (capital expenditures)
- Sufficient funding (operating budgets)
- Fair criteria for deciding who may be admitted to CTE programs (admission policies)
Expanding Capacity Sufficient funding and more seats for students will require legislation. PDM is working with legislators to develop and advance priority legislation and will advocate for support as that legislation moves forward. Two priority proposals are currently before the Legislature:
- H.3756: An Act to increase student access to career technical education schools and programs which are aligned with regional labor market needs (Rep. Brodeur/Sen. Lewis), which would implement changes in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to prioritize and advance access to CTE.
- The PROMISE Act (H.586) to fix the state’s education funding formulae to provide additional resources for all public schools, including vocational schools. All the foundation budget increases in the bill would benefit CTE schools, including measures to:
- Substantially increase the additional increment attached to any economically disadvantaged student who attends;
- Increase the assumed in-district Special Education (SPED) percentage to 4% for traditional schools and 5% for vocational schools;
- Increase the allotment for English Learners (ELs) and, for the first time ever, apply this to ELs attending vocational programs.
Fair Admissions Criteria The goal of an admissions policy should be to identify as many interested applicants who can be successful in the program as possible and then to make sure that those applicants have an equal chance of being accepted. This Fall, the state education department (DESE) will propose revisions to their Admissions Policy (603 CMR 4.00) for Vocational Technical Education. We believe the regulations should give all students who would be able to benefit from vocational education an equal (lottery-based) opportunity to attend these public schools, until we can provide access for all interested students. We will be providing input to DESE’s rule-making process advocating these policies.
For more information, or to see how you can help: Please contact us at: info@progressivedemsofmass.org
________
* Vocational education is also referred to by the acronyms CTE (Career Technical Education) or CVTE (Career Vocational Technical Education).
^ MassBudget: Skills for Our Future: Vocational Education in Massachusetts