Kaine's CTE push wins a White House nod

Sometimes, it’s good to have a pal in the White House. President Barack Obama signed an executive order expanding the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program to recognize students who opt for Career and Technical Education programs. Former technical school teacher (and now Sen.) Tim Kaine, an early Obama backer asked him to.

It wasn’t just his time teaching carpentry and welding at the Instituto Tecnico Loyola in El Progreso, Honduras, that made Kaine such an advocate for career education. Newport News deserves some credit too.

Kaine’s visits in recent years to the Apprentice School (where he sat in on physics and drafting classes) convinced him to invite school officials up to DC to tell his fellow Senators about businesses’ needs for graduates of career and tech programs --and the rewards the students win.

“It’s important we send the message that CTE programs play a pivotal role in preparing students for the workforce and offer them a pathway to success,” Kaine said, in a statement after Obama signed the executive order.

Here at Shad Plank, we think he said it better at the Apprentice School last year.

His dad, Kaine noted then, ran an iron-working and welding shop. Kaine admired the craftsmen who worked there, but was told as a high school student that college was the way to go.

"I always thought there was something out of whack about that," he said.

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