Vocational Education Struggles

Vocational education is suffering in many places, and not just because of lack of students. There are other problems, as a recent LA Times article describes.

In 1987, the earliest year for which the state has data, nearly 27% of California high school students were enrolled in at least one industrial vocational education class. Today, only 15% of students are taking such classes.

Over virtually the same span, membership in the California Industrial Technology Education Assn., which includes trade instructors, has plummeted from 5,000 to 350.

Several factors account for the declining numbers. Until the mid-1980s in many school districts, minority students were often disproportionately shunted toward vocational education classes. Although recent research indicates that such race-based tracking has largely been eliminated, urban districts continue to encounter minority parents reluctant to enroll their children in vocational classes.

A changing economy that includes growing healthcare and technology sectors and declining manufacturing industries has also made some vocational program obsolete.

More pressing, however, is money. Running equipment-dependent vocational programs is expensive, and in the competition for classroom dollars, those programs fade on priority lists.

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