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> It’s far more likely to become a plumber, electrician, HVAC, Lineman, etc. Tons of work and something to be proud of. <

Yes, indeed. My urban school district had an excellent trades program in the high schools. It was all ruined by George W. Bush’s insane No Child Left Behind. NCLB tested for math and English, but not for the trades. And woe to any school that scored low on those tests.

So every last high school in my district eliminated their trades programs, and shoved the trades students into advanced math and English classes. It was a disaster.

I have mentioned this on other threads. So sorry for the repetition. It’s just something that angers me to this day.

“It was all ruined by George W. Bush’s insane No Child Left Behind. NCLB tested for math and English, but not for the trades. And woe to any school that scored low on those tests.”

GWB signed it and approved of NCLB, but don’t forget that it was really the work of the ‘Lion of the Senate’, Ted Kennedy. One of many messes he left for us to try and clean up.

For those not familiar, NCLB was based on the insane idea that every child could become ‘proficient’ in reading and math if only enough pressure was put on the schools and the teachers.

It was phased in. The first year something like 23% had to score ‘proficient’. But there was a catch. Every possible group had to score that high for the school to get a passing grade. Possible groups included blacks, whites, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Indians, etc. etc., boys, girls, limited English speakers, Special Ed kids, free and reduced lunch kids, ‘at-risk kids and more. For a district to pass, every school in the district had to pass as well.

Every third year, the number who had to pass was ratcheted up considerably. So every third years schools had to concentrate on ‘teaching to the test’ even more. Some states lowered standards and many school started to cheat. The end goal was as the Acts name stated: 100% of students would score ‘proficient’. This, of course was impossible. So after a dozen years or so, NCLB was abandoned to be replaced in most places with ‘common core’.