Career Education Plan From Obama Administration Unlikely To Bear Fruit For A Year Or More
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan traveled to a community college in the middle of Iowa to announce Thursday what he called a "transformation" of vocational education.
"The Perkins program must be transformed if it is to live up to its potential to prepare every youth and adult to participate in the knowledge-based global marketplace of the 21st century," Duncan told an audience at the Des Moines Area Community College.
The administration's proposal is a blueprint for reauthorizing the Perkins Act, which pays public schools to provide vocational education (known as "career academies"). The new proposal's most drastic changes would increase the quantity of Perkins grants and make them competitive, similar to changes Duncan has made to other parts of the educational spectrum. The administration proposed a new competitive fund of $1 billion to increase the number of career academies by 3,000 -- a jump that could serve 500,000 more students.
But with no prospect of congressional hearings on the proposal any time soon -- indeed, with no such bill currently in either chamber of Congress -- and with the expiration of Perkins a full year away, stakeholders are
"The Perkins program must be transformed if it is to live up to its potential to prepare every youth and adult to participate in the knowledge-based global marketplace of the 21st century," Duncan told an audience at the Des Moines Area Community College.
The administration's proposal is a blueprint for reauthorizing the Perkins Act, which pays public schools to provide vocational education (known as "career academies"). The new proposal's most drastic changes would increase the quantity of Perkins grants and make them competitive, similar to changes Duncan has made to other parts of the educational spectrum. The administration proposed a new competitive fund of $1 billion to increase the number of career academies by 3,000 -- a jump that could serve 500,000 more students.
But with no prospect of congressional hearings on the proposal any time soon -- indeed, with no such bill currently in either chamber of Congress -- and with the expiration of Perkins a full year away, stakeholders are