Trump Administration Plans to Reduce Amount of Career Technical Programs' Data Gathering
The Trump administration has proposed to repeal rules for collecting data on state career and technical education (CTE) programs, a move that has been met with relief by state and district CTE leaders. Finalized in December 2024 but never implemented, these rules were part of the Biden administration's efforts to enhance job training and career-exploration programs.
Amy Loyd, the chief executive officer of the education advocacy group All4Ed, played a significant role in developing the rules up for repeal during her tenure as a former assistant education secretary for career, technical, and adult education under the Biden administration. However, her stance on the proposed repeal remains unclear.
Loyd's statement indicates a swing towards workforce credentials without considering the complexity of what CTE is seeking to accomplish in terms of preparing students for meaningful career choices. She argues that as states and districts expand CTE and short-term workforce credentialing, they need clear ways to compare and evaluate the programs and occupations they target.
The Education Department believes the repeal would result in significant administrative burden at state and local levels. On the other hand, opponents of the repeal fear that rolling back reporting requirements could mean educators, employers, and the public will be less able to understand and evaluate CTE programs.
The proposed repeal would remove new requirements added by the Biden administration, potentially making it harder to judge whether Perkins-funded programs are helping funnel students into well-paying jobs. The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act provides approximately $1.5 billion a year in formula grants to states for job training and career-exploration programs.
The Trump administration's proposal specifies that any reference to gender in the law refers to biological sex, not gender identity. This change could have implications for how data is collected and reported in CTE programs.
Kate Kreamer, the executive director of Advance CTE, stated that the Biden-era rules would have required states to rerun data, change some indicators, and change collection, potentially losing longitudinal data because of midway implementation. Jimmy Koch, government relations manager for the Association for Career and Technical Education, suggested that new definitions and evaluation measures should be hammered out in Perkins' next congressional update and rulemaking for the newly created Pell workforce grants for short-term job training.
One of the contentious points in the proposed rules was the requirement for states to include middle school students when reporting CTE program participation and completion. However, the implementation varies widely across states. The Trump administration's proposal does not address this issue explicitly.
Comments on the proposed repeal will be accepted through September 26. The future of data collection in career and technical education programs hangs in the balance as the debate continues.
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