Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a term commonly applied to educational programs, schools and institutions that specialize in the skills, trades, applied sciences, modern technology and career preparation (US Department of Education, 2016). CTE may either be a form of vocational training or a linking course for those desirous of pursuing further education in the related course such as engineering and applied sciences. Whereas the vocational training system of yesteryears simply offered old function courses like woodwork and auto mechanics for out-of-high school job students, it has gradually mutated into CTE, which provides a pathway to higher education but on the extremely marketable technical subjects, applied sciences, and highly skilled trades. This is with a view of catapulting the students into the middle-class as opposed to vocational training that predominantly led to a life in the working poor class (US Department of Education, 2016). This paper seeks to establish the connection and effect of federal laws on the development and progress of CTE.
The Early Laws
The story of CTE begins with the passage of the Smith–Lever Act which albeit not academic in nature, was designed to sensitize people on technical issues and was molded to fit academia through the passage of the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 commonly referred to as the Smith-Hughes Act. This Act promoted vocational training in agriculture, home economics, and trades and general industrial training (Manley, 2011) . Agriculture was however, the main focus of the Smith-Hughes Act and was taught both to those who were conducting the activity and those who intended to join the activity of farming with the Woodland High School being the first public secondary school to offer agriculture related education under the Smith-Hughes Act (Manley, 2011) .
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The Smith-Hughes Act established a clear segregation between ordinary academic and vocational training including establishment of the separate state boards for vocational education specifically mandated to handle vocational training, providing for both federal and state funds for this endeavor, segregating teachers to specifically teach vocational training, and segregating the vocational training students from the normal academia students (Manley, 2011) . Albeit many laws has since been enacted with regard to vocational training and a lot needed to be changed over the years with regard to the said legislative act more so with regard to segregation of students, there is no denying that the Smith-Hughes Act was the mother of vocational training and its current form CTE in the United States (Manley, 2011) .
Expansion Laws
As indicated, the Smith-Hughes Act created vocational training, which was gradually expanded by the George-Reed Act of 1929. This Act focused on agriculture and home economics and separated the latter from being interpreted under the trade and industrial sections as depicted in the Smith-Hughes Act. It also authorized annual appropriations to support vocational training (Scott & Sarkees-Wircenski, 2004) . The related George-Deen Act of 1936 allocated twelve million US dollars, a colossal sum in those days for agriculture, home economics and trade & industry and also added a new course known as distributive occupations, the precursor of today’s marketing programs into the vocational training ambit. 10% of this fund was allotted for vocational guidance and occupational information while supervisory travel was also included in the program (Manley, 2011) .
In 1946, the George-Barden Act added another thirty four million US dollars to the kitty started by the George-Deen Act and made additional supervisory provisions with the introduction of the state vocational training director with salaries and expenses for related staff. This was subsequently followed by the George-Barden Act of 1946 and the Health Amendments Act of 1956 which now added Tittle II to the George Barden Act to include nurse training as well as increasing funds for expansion (Scott & Sarkees-Wircenski, 2004) . This was followed by a plethora of minor amendments including the National Defense Education Act of 1958, The Vocational Education Act of 1966, the Vocational Education Act of 1968, The Vocational Education Act of 1972 (Amended) and the Vocational Education Act of 1976 (Manley, 2011).
The Advent of CTE
The second major Act after the groundbreaking Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 was the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1984 (Perkins I) named after a democratic congressman from Kentucky who passed on in the same year. This Act created the mandate to expand, improve, modernize, and develop vocational education programs as well as catering for specific populations including the handicapped and the disadvantaged. It was this process of modernization that began the revolution of ordinary vocational training into CTE as defined above (Scott & Sarkees-Wircenski, 2004) . The Act was followed by Perkins II in 1990 that mostly related to the less advantaged and the Perkins III of 1998 which gave states and local authorities a higher level of autonomy to develop and manage CTE programs even as they develop local mechanisms for accountability more so with regard to student performance. It also provided for funding issues, Tech Prep, school-to-work, gender equity, and handicapped students (Manley, 2011) .
Currently, CTE is operating under the provisions of Perkins IV of 2006, which creates focus on academic achievement both in career and technical support education students as outlined in the introductory part of this part, thus showing the completion of the mutative process of vocational education into CTE. Perkins IV also provides for the betterment of connections between secondary and postsecondary education as well as the improvement of local accountability for CTE (Manley, 2011) .
Conclusion
It has been a long journey for CTE from the days of a strict divide between the preferred white color jobs and the downtrodden technical jobs to the current times when the technical jobs are seemingly more affluent with the white collar jobs now playing a supporting role; from the days when those who picked technical vocations would be segregated as second-rate students to the current times when technical and applied sciences related careers chose from the cream of academia. Fortunately, vocational training and its offshoot CTE have mutated through enactment of the several federal laws to meet these changes and match the metamorphosis of the working environment. A lot still needs to be done to improve on and expand the scope of CTE; the current progress is however laudable.
References
Manley, R. A. (2011). The Decentralization of Perkins: History, Impact, and Recommendations for Future CTE Legislation. Career and Technical Education Research, 36 (2), 119-152.
Scott, J. L., & Sarkees-Wircenski, M. (2004). Overview of career and technical education (3rd ed.). Homewood, IL: American technical press
U.S. Department of Education (2016). Career and technical education. Retrieved from <http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/cte/index.html?exp=7/>
