Oops!

Nine years ago I sat in a crowded auditorium with other CTE (Career & Technical Education) teachers. These are the people who teach kids in high school how to be electricians, plumbers, masons, merchandisers, nurse assistants, beauticians and other "menial" jobs. They also teach computer programming, bookkeeping, marketing and other business related subjects. 

On the stage, the School Superintendent and a representative from the State Board of Education were updating us on a change in curriculum for the coming school year. 

"Students will no longer be able to graduate with an emphasis in CTE," said the Superintendent. "Instead, starting in the fall, all high school students will be enrolled on a pre-college track that will prepare them for college." 

CTE was dead. Teachers would be laid off ("No CTE classes will count toward graduation credit."), classrooms would be reassigned. 

The next day, half the CTE teachers in the system simply didn't show up for work. Why should they? They had been terminated the day before. They needed to look for a job to support themselves and their family. 

Fast forward to 2016. 

It's nine years later and we are seeing more and more articles in business journals and newspapers lamenting the woeful lack of qualified applicants to fill jobs needed to grow the economy. Hardest hit: Manufacturing, construction and service industries. 

To put it another way, because of short-sighted (and frankly, elitist) educational policies implemented nine years before, there aren't enough trained auto mechanics, electricians, masons, plumbers, carpenters, welders, machine operators, pipe fitters or people trained in a host of other "blue collar" skills, available to fill the immediate, much less long term, needs of companies. 

So the pressure is on to reinstate CTE classes at the high school level.

Easier said than done.

To restart CTE (vocational) training in high schools will take billions of dollars and more than a few years. Why? For one there aren't any CTE licensed teacher. The reason is simple: The licenses for most CTE teachers laid off nine years ago have expired. Anyone wanting to teach CTE classes in their field are required go back to school and take the requisite coursework needed for certification. Because of certifications changes, that may include earning a Bachelor's Degree in Education.

The prospective CTE teacher will have to pay for this coursework out of their pocket. Even if they do complete all the requisite coursework and pass the background checks and survive the interview process, they probably won't be offered a job. There are no provisions in the local school budgets for CTE teachers and classrooms. Those programs ended nine years ago and so was the funding. 

Another, and perhaps more telling consideration is that the vast majority of CTE teachers who were let go found other, better paying, far less stressful jobs in their field of expertise in a variety of industries. They've gotten raises. Been promoted. Some even started their own company and have been successful.

It is highly unlikely these former teachers would be anxious to give up the  life they created for themselves and their family to go back to teaching where they will make substantially less money and work far longer hours for an elitest educational system that loathes them and what they do. 

The irony is that it is these former CTE teachers - the ones who found jobs in industry and rose up in the ranks, or who are now business owners - who can't find enough qualified candidates to fill the jobs they have open. 

What goes around, comes around.