Friends of Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education,
Very interesting piece that First appeared in Contrarian Boston 1.8.24 Please take a moment to read this piece written by David Mancuso, President of Mancuso Communication Strategies.
We have faith in the legislature to act to increase capacity and are appreciative of all the legislature has done to support vocational education.
David
With volley of letters to Gov. Healey, debate over future of the state’s vocational schools heats up
Only in politics can everyone agree on the solution to a problem and still wind up fighting to death over it.
Case in point: current practices to determine student admissions to the state’s Chapter 74 vocational schools.
Demand for seats in vocational schools outstrips supply, leaving between 6,000 and 11,000 Massachusetts students on the sidelines each year due to lack of state funding, insufficient infrastructure, and the skilled instructors required to meet demand.
Those on both sides of the argument told Contrarian Boston the ultimate solution to the problem is to increase funding, build infrastructure and train teachers to increase the supply of vocational school seats to meet demand.
Problem solved? Not so fast.
The real issue is nobody involved in the debate believes state leadership is willing to step up to deliver the obvious solution, not even members of the Massachusetts Legislature with whom the power to ultimately solve the problem resides.
Consequently, both sides have sent letters to Gov. Maura Healey over the holidays asking her to throw her support in their direction, as if they expect her act like a mom who will tell siblings to stop fighting and resolve their difference by fiat.
Current enrollment, though not meeting total demand, does reflect the demographic profile of the state. According to DESE data, among students of color 43.9% are eligible for a vocational school, with 42.3% of those students being enrolled at a vocational school. For English language learners the numbers are 7.5% eligible, 6.6% enrolled; for students with disabilities 18.8% eligible, 19.3% enrolled; and for low income students, 44.0% eligible, 46.4% enrolled.
So just where is the need for a lottery?
In their letter to Healey, the Massachusetts Association of Vocational School Administrators (MAVA) firmly pushed back against proponents seeking to implement a luck-of-the-draw lottery for admission to a vocational school in the name of fairness and equity, saying “demand won’t change with a lottery. It will just rearrange which students are excluded.”
Rep. Frank Moran, along with 11 members of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Caucus, agree with MAVA, telling Healey a “one-size-fits-all” lottery would simply turn the admissions process into “a game of chance,” and “actively decrease educational opportunities for students from protected classes.”
Many vocational schools could build more capacity immediately if the legislature gave them the funding to do so, thereby speeding up the process toward having full capacity to meet demand as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile a letter signed by Rep. Antonio Cabral and Sen. John Cronin, under the banner of the Gateway Cities Caucus asked Healey to “mandate” a lottery that would hold vocational schools to “a standard where every applicant . . . has the same chance at admission” to a voke school.
They should have just written, “Dear Governor, please do our work for us so that when parents and students realize they still aren’t able to attend a voke school, you can take the heat.”
It seems that lottery proponents favor the optics of fairness over the implementation of actual equality, which would require every student who wants a seat in a vocational school to have one.
Acknowledging the recent abundance of outreach from policymakers and advocates, Healey Press Secretary Karissa Hand told Contrarian Boston “the Healey-Driscoll administration is committed to ensuring equitable access to vocational schools in Massachusetts,” adding that “the administration will be closely reviewing recommendations and engaging with stakeholders on this issue."
Word on Beacon Hill is the Senate may have some interest in the issue, while the House has little to none.
How interested the governor is in the topic remains to be seen.
What is clear is that neither side of the debate wants to let students who want to enter vocational schools down.
They probably don’t have to worry. The legislature will likely do that for them, either by endorsing a random chance lottery which is unlikely to change once implemented, or ignoring the obvious solution entirely.
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira
