April 24, 2006 4:56 PM

It's not your grandfather's trade school
Posted by Douglas Eisenhartat 4:56 PM

As one who is footing the bill for one four-year liberal arts education at the moment with another to come, the prospect of vocational education at the secondary level - with its earlier focus, definable skill set, and far more immediate payback - is increasingly appealing.

Obviously others across the Commonwealth agree as vocational education enrollments have jumped 21 percent in the last 11 years. Something's going on here.

So it is with some interest that I read this AP article on the evolution of the trade school:

The smell of sawdust from carpentry classes still wafts down the hall at Upper Cape Tech and other technical high schools across the country. But a new crop of course work -- biotechnology, DNA forensics, robotics, golf course management, aquaculture -- has enlivened traditional vocational shops.

The offerings have helped fuel an apparent surge in vocational enrollment across the country in the last five years. The swell in traditional and newfangled shop classes comes, however, at a time when federal funding for the programs is again in danger.