Education Secretary’s elementary-school trades comments stir up controversy

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has stirred up controversy with recent comments about preparing students for careers in the trades as early as elementary school. 

What’s happening: In a late-July interview on Fox Business, McMahon said that not every child needs a college education.  

• “We need electricians and plumbers, and we need HVAC operators and data engineers, all of that,” she said, suggesting that educators “get them into pathways towards that education, starting even in elementary, middle schools, high schools.”

Driving the news: She reiterated the idea on CNN this past Sunday, Aug. 23, when she was asked whether steering kids toward career tracks in elementary school was too early.

• “I don’t think so,” she said, “because I think what we can do is look at students. What are their interests? How do we direct them down a pathway that they’re going to have an interest in? I believe that children need a well-rounded education, but I think we have focused too long on just that path to a four-year university. And sometimes we ignore what the actual skill sets of those students are.” 
• She added that community colleges are already “working with middle schools. They have dual credits, middle schools and high schools, for skilled trades.” 

Why it matters: According to a February study by nonprofit Bring Back the Trades and F.W. Webb, 1.4 million jobs across seven trade categories will go unfilled nationwide by 2030. 

• The Trump administration has launched several initiatives over the past year to bolster the skilled trades — including the first-of-its-kind federal Workforce Pell Grant program in July — while simultaneously attacking universities and calling for the Department of Education to be dismantled.

Yes, but: Some people criticized the comments from McMahon, who graduated from East Carolina University with a bachelor’s degree in French, co-founded the WWE pro wrestling league, and ran the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. 

• Sorting students onto academic or career paths while they’re young — known as “tracking” — is a divisive issue in education. 
• A contributor to The Root cautioned against “deciding a child’s future before she has discovered her potential.” 
• One online commenter wrote of McMahon’s comments: “Translation: we want to teach children as young as possible that their value is contingent on the work they provide for the ruling class.” 

The other side: Mark Valentini, vice president of legislative affairs at PHCC, tells Homepros that pushback against McMahon’s idea sounded “ridiculous.” 

• “There’s STEM, right? Why not make building trades part of that discussion, part of the curriculum?” he said.
• “I used to have a Fisher-Price workbench when I was a kid,” he added. “Now they’ve gotten a lot more complex. They’ve got the Craftsman brand on it now… They’re cooler than the tools I have now.”