Senate passes bill to encourage vocational education

By Mark Binker

Posted: February 7

Raleigh, N.C. — The state Senate voted 49-0 to pass a bill aimed at making vocational education more readily available to North Carolina high school students. Among the bill's major features, high school students would earn diplomas marking them as ready for a career, college or both."

"Gov. (Pat) McCrory has been pushing this idea that we need to get people ready for the jobs that area already out there," said Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph.

The measure, Senate Bill 14, next goes to the House.

Although it passed unanimously, some senators did challenge Tillman on whether or not parents would be involved in the choice a child makes in 10th grade as to whether to follow a vocational education path or a more academically oriented course of study.

"In high school, you're still raising your children," said Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe.

Tillman said that parents are involved now in helping children decide on their career paths.

"I don't want to get into mandating that a parent do this, that, or the other," Tillman said.

3 Comments

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Simply marking someone's high school diploma "career ready" does not make it so. I hope this bill provides for funding for some vocational education programs that will effectively train students to be "career ready."

rasengineers
February 8, 2013 9:49 a.m.

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Glad to see this. We forget that all students are not able to or are not going to go to college. We need to prepare those students for a career to make them a productive member of society. Too many times there are students falling through the cracks because there aren't vocational classes for them to take. In the past these classes have been cut to make room for college bound classes.