With CTE getting much warranted attention on Capitol Hill lately and ACTE’s Career Tech VISION 2013 happening last week in Las Vegas, it is an exciting time to be an ACTE member! Adding to that excitement was the appearance of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the ACTE Awards Banquet during VISION 2013.
Having made appearances at many other education related conferences during his tenure, last week’s remarks at the awards banquet were the Secretary’s first at VISION!
The Secretary centered his speech on, what he called, President Obama’s “north star” goal – for every student to graduate from high school and obtain some form of postsecondary training or degree. High-quality CTE was directly acknowledged by him as an important piece of the solution for helping every student meet the President’s goal.
Also using his time at VISION to highlight CTE programs from around the country, Mr. Duncan spoke about two schools he has visited this year. Wheeling High School in Illinois recently opened a nanotechnology lab, one of the first in a secondary school, to prepare students for careers in fields such as engineering and healthcare. Transmountain Early College High School in Texas has CTE programs in energy, engineering and robotics. Through these CTE programs, students at Transmountain have the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree while still in high school.
While ACTE may not always agree with the Secretary on policy specifics, such as the Administration’s Blueprint for Perkins reauthorization, we do agree that high-quality CTE is a major benefit in the lives of those students that are able to participate and that we must expand these opportunities to more students. And, while the Perkins CTE Act reauthorization will take place in Congress, ACTE looks forward to continuing to work with the Secretary to enhance CTE opportunities.
For a transcript of the Secretary's remarks, please see the Department of Education’s website.
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