Why Career and Technical Education? Exploring Policymakers' Expressed Motivations for Supporting Perkins V

This report investigates several key questions concerning the current career and technical education (CTE) policy environment. First, what are common themes in how legislators have discussed the most recent legislative actions on CTE? Second, are there differences in these themes across the House and the Senate? Finally, did Democrats and Republicans include different themes in the press releases on CTE from 2014 through the president's signing of the Perkins Act in 2018? Further, interviews with key staff members for two major CTE organizations involved in the recent reauthorization--Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)--provide additional insights on the dimensions of CTE policy that were salient for policy actors at the time. Information from these interviews is coupled with the information from the press releases to further clarify the context. This report begins with a broad overview of the definition of CTE and the most recent reauthorization of the Perkins Act. Next, evidence from the press releases and interviews is presented to cover the questions posed at the beginning of this report, including analysis of the differences between the House and the Senate, between Republicans and Democrats, and among CTE activists. Finally, conclusions and broad takeaways, including remaining open questions, are reviewed.