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I’ve mentioned this before. Bush II’s disastrous ‘No Child Left Behind’ program is the main reason there are no longer trades programs in high schools. NCLB tested only for math and English. And woe to the school with low scores.

So most schools eliminated their trades programs, and shoved everyone into advanced math and English classes.

I taught in an urban high school. We had a superb carpentry program. Inner city kids learned a skill that their neighborhoods needed. The program is gone now, for the reason stated above.

As for unions, before teaching I worked in a union steel mill. The union is a major reason that mill is now gone. They killed the golden goose. Killed it dead.

I was in the International Aerospace Workers Local 727 at Lockheed in Burbank CA.I built parts for the L-1011 Airliner and the S-3 Viking. We had workers stealing tools, workers making their own stuff on the machines during working hours, we had workers dogging jobs to extend them into overtime hours.

At the same time, the union stewards were walking around socializing and interrupting the work while they campaigned for higher union positions - and filing grievances against anyone who worked out of level or made suggestions to improved productivity ("eliminating jobs") - and taking a healthy part of my paycheck with compulsory union dues.

Now Lockheed doesn't make airliners or antisubmarine aircraft anymore.