CTAE seeds planted by Georgia leaders a century ago
Anybody who works in the field of career, technical and agricultural education (CTAE) these days knows the name Carl D. Perkins. Perkins was a long-serving Kentucky congressman whose name is on the current federal law that funds and governs vocational and technical education in America. He rightly gets credit for leading the effort to modernize the nation’s technical education system about 30 years ago.
But long before Perkins pushed his law through Congress in 1984, two Georgia lawmakers pioneered the field and seeded a movement that will mark its 100th anniversary next year. And as we approach that important centennial, it seems important to recall and salute the Georgians who got this ball rolling in the first place.
Hoke Smith was a lawyer and one-time publisher of The Atlanta Journal who went on to serve as governor and U.S. senator. Dudley M. Hughes was a prominent Georgia agriculture leader who served first in the state Senate and then, from 1909 to 1918, in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented huge swaths of middle and south Georgia. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Sen. Smith and Rep. Hughes to a special commission to study whether the federal government should get involved in funding vocational education.
As the commission finished its work, Smith and Hughes teamed up to sponsor and ultimately pass the National Vocational Education Act of 1917. The Smith-Hughes Act, as it was called, was a response to rising concerns over the shortage of skilled labor in America’s rapidly industrializing economy. It was supported by businesses and labor unions alike, and the final legislation passed both the House and Senate by unanimous consent in mid-February 1917.
In the decades since then, untold millions of students across the country have benefited from constantly evolving curricula — starting, yes, with shop and home economics — that helped prepare them for post-secondary life. Over time, the curriculum continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of students and society alike.
Here in Georgia, more than a half-million middle and high school students are currently enrolled in at least one CTAE course. In middle school, students have access to courses in 10 different program areas, ranging from Human Services and Health Sciences to Business Management and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
As of 2015, more than 330,000 high school students were enrolled in CTAE courses learning everything from construction, automotive and manufacturing trades to business and financial management. Approximately 50,000 were enrolled in information technology classes, and nearly 10,000 were taking courses in a new transportation, distribution and logistics program area.
One clear reward for this flexible, dynamic approach to career and technical education is that Georgia’s students are engaged in hands-on learning and want to do well. Students who complete three or more classes in a specific program area — we call these students “CTAE concentrators” — have long posted better graduation rates than high school students as a whole. In 2015, 94.9 percent of CTAE concentrators graduated from high school. That compares to a 78.8 percent overall graduation rate. It also represents a five-point jump over 2014.
From high school, these young students obviously scattered in dozens if not hundreds of different directions. Some are already in the labor force and some are in college, including the state’s technical schools and institutions of the University System of Georgia. Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture includes a good many students who cut their teeth in CTAE architecture and drafting classes at Georgia’s high schools; likewise, the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia actively recruits high schoolers who show an interest in business and assume leadership roles in their Future Business Leaders of America organizations.
Truth is, if you’ve been cared for by a nurse, hired an architect to design your home, had your HVAC system serviced, or taken your computer in for repair, there’s a good chance you’re working with somebody who got the first taste of their future career in a CTAE classroom. Next time that happens, I hope you’ll tip your hat to Sen. Smith and Rep. Hughes. The seeds they planted a century ago are still bearing fruit for our state and our country.
This story was originally published September 26, 2016 at 9:03 PM with the headline "CTAE seeds planted by Georgia leaders a century ago."