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Let’s accept the premise that we need to increase the overall capacity of the state to provide high-quality vocational education to more students. Aside from building more vocational schools, maybe we should consider that too, what do we do in the short term to create more opportunities for students?
Here are three ideas to virtually guarantee greater career opportunities:
or The state needs to assign enough staff to quickly review and approve Chapter 74 applications. Chapter 74 of the Massachusetts General Laws governs vocational education. One of the many reasons that vocational education is so successful in Massachusetts is that Chapter 74 and its implementing regulations have rigorous standards for program approval. To ensure the integrity of the system, these standards must be maintained. However, if a vocational school can demonstrate a clear need for a program in the labor market and can satisfy all the other criteria outlined in the law and regulations, why should it wait? years to get approved for a program? It just doesn’t make sense. DESE needs to readjust its staffing pattern to focus its efforts on things that count. The approval of new high-quality vocational programs counts.
or The state should develop a grant program to test new and innovative approaches to providing additional high-quality vocational education in Massachusetts.. As part of the grant application, you must require collaboration between vocational schools and their academic counterparts. The state must end the “us versus them” approach to solve this problem. Trade schools and non-vocational schools can, and should, work together to jointly solve the problem. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) may use existing Perkins grant funds (federal money) to create this new grant program. I am not a huge fan of throwing money at a problem and I am not suggesting that we do so in this case. But professional and non-professional systems need an incentive to work together. Let’s give it to him.
or The state needs to expand and refocus its current vocational equipment grant program.. At the urging of former Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, the state set aside $ 1 million per year to fund the purchase of equipment for vocational programs. This equipment grant program has been very successful, but it is too small. It is necessary to double or triple its size. And the state needs to change its approach. You need to give more “weight” to applications that support the creation of new Chapter 74 programs or increase enrollment in existing Chapter 74 programs. Funding to maintain existing programs is fine, but it doesn’t help solve the underlying problem: find more capacity.