President Bush is proposing to eliminate the entire $1.3 billion federal vocational program in his fiscal 2006 budget, arguing that it has yielded “little or no evidence of improved outcomes,” despite decades of federal spending.
Backers of vocational programs counter that many assessments of voc. ed. are outdated and undersell the benefits that trade-oriented classes offer students at risk of dropping out of high school.
Does career and technical education still have a place in today’s education landscape? How should these programs be funded?
