Windham School District in Texas has one hundred campuses and over forty CTE programs — welding, construction, CDL, the same NCCER credentials your kids are chasing. Every campus is inside a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility. There is a welding instructor somewhere in Texas who drives to work, goes through a metal detector, and teaches shop. A state grant bought them augmented reality welding simulators. Their partner college runs CDL training out of two Freightliner semis, pointing at careers paying $50,000 to $110,000. And at their recent College and Career Day, one of the keynote speakers was a graduate of their welding program who now works with the American Welding Society.

When a state decides the most effective thing it can do with its hardest population is teach them a trade, that's not a soft endorsement of shop class.  ...