When Governor Maura Healey stood inside Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough on April 30 and announced more than $70 million in Career Technical Education capital grants to 28 schools, she wasn’t just cutting a ribbon. She was answering a question that every state with a vocational waitlist problem has been ducking for years: how do you actually scale CTE access when demand far outstrips capacity?
The headline numbers are straightforward. The Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded grants ranging from roughly $925,000 to $4 million across 28 high schools and career-technical schools, creating up to 2,500 new CTE seats. The funding will launch 27 entirely new CTE programs and expand 23 existing ones, while upgrading equipment, technology, and lab spaces statewide. Assabet Valley alone received $3.75 million to build two new programs—public safety and veterinary science—adding 160 seats over five years. Taconic High School in Pittsfield received the largest single grant at $4 million.
The Context: A Waitlist Problem That Became a Political Problem
Massachusetts has become the poster child for CTE demand outstripping supply. The state’s vocational-technical schools regularly report waitlists numbering in the thousands, and the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators (MAVA) has been vocal about the gap. “Demand for our schools and programs has never been higher, as more students and families recognize the value of immersive, hands-on, career-connected learning,” said MAVA Executive Director Steven C. Sharek in response to the announcement.
The $70 million grant round is the latest—and largest—capital investment in CTE in the state’s history. It builds on several prior moves: over the past three years, the administration has approved 49 new CTE programs supporting 2,334 additional students. The same month as this announcement, the administration opened applications for $15 million in “CTE Capital Annex Pilot” grants specifically designed to help comprehensive high schools launch or expand CTE programs, adding an estimated 400 to 600 more seats. The Healey-Driscoll BRIGHT Act also includes $100 million for Skills Capital grants targeting technology and lab upgrades.
But what makes this announcement worth watching beyond Massachusetts is the model itself.
The Two-Track Strategy: Regional Vocational Plus Comprehensive High Schools
The grant distribution reveals a deliberate strategy. Funding didn’t go exclusively to established regional vocational schools like Greater Lowell, Bristol-Plymouth, and Worcester Technical. It also flowed to comprehensive high schools—Medford High School, Newton South High School, Leominster Center of Technology Education, and others—that are building CTE programs alongside traditional academic tracks.
This is significant. Most states treat CTE expansion as a question of building more regional vocational schools, which requires years of construction, transportation logistics, and community buy-in. Massachusetts is running a parallel track: expanding regional vocational capacity while simultaneously embedding Chapter 74-approved CTE programs inside comprehensive high schools that already exist.
For Pennsylvania, where the Philadelphia School District operates more than 30 CTE programs across neighborhood high schools and magnet career academies, this dual-track approach is already familiar. Philadelphia’s career academies—from construction technology at Randolph Career Academy to health sciences at Edward T. Steel Elementary—operate on the same premise that Massachusetts is now scaling with state-level capital. The difference is funding scale. Massachusetts has committed nine-figure capital specifically earmarked for equipment, lab modernization, and new program launch. Pennsylvania’s CTE programs, by contrast, compete for Perkins V allocations and state CTE subsidies that haven’t kept pace with the cost of equipping a modern welding lab or health sciences simulation suite.
What the Programs Look Like on the Ground
The new programs reveal where workforce demand is heading. At Assabet Valley, the public safety program will include a mock dispatch center and forensics lab, partnerships with municipal fire and EMS departments for internships and work-based learning, and articulation agreements with community colleges leading to public safety degrees and certifications. The veterinary science program will prepare students for entry-level animal care roles with Veterinary CPR and Approved Veterinary Assistant (AVA) certifications.
Other grant recipients are expanding existing high-demand programs. Norfolk County Agricultural High School received $3.5 million. Worcester Technical High received $3.75 million. Chicopee Comprehensive High School—again, a comprehensive school, not a dedicated vocational campus—received $3.5 million to build out CTE infrastructure inside a traditional high school setting.
Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez framed the investment in credential terms: “CTE programs are a great opportunity for students to earn industry-recognized credentials before they’ve even graduated from high school.”
Implications: What Other States Should Be Watching
Three things make this announcement nationally relevant.
First, the scale. Seventy million dollars in a single capital grant round for CTE is not normal. Most states fund CTE equipment upgrades through competitive Perkins supplements or small state appropriations. Massachusetts has essentially created a dedicated capital pipeline for CTE, treating lab and shop infrastructure the same way states typically treat school construction or athletic facilities.
Second, the “After Dark” model. Massachusetts runs CTE Partnership Programs outside the traditional school day, expanding access for students at comprehensive high schools who can’t or don’t transfer to a regional vocational campus. This removes the either/or choice between traditional academics and CTE. It’s an approach that Pennsylvania’s PDE could replicate using existing career academy infrastructure in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the mid-state regions.
Third, the explicit connection to workforce pipelines. Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones tied the grants directly to the Workforce Skills Cabinet’s Career Technical Initiative, noting that enhanced equipment “paves the way for future workers and current jobseekers ready to gain meaningful skills and employment in Massachusetts.” This isn’t education policy framed as education policy. It’s workforce development policy that starts in 9th grade.
What’s Next
The 28 grant recipients now move into implementation—purchasing equipment, building out lab spaces, hiring or retraining instructors, and recruiting students into the new programs. The timeline is multi-year; Assabet Valley’s 160 new seats will roll out over five years.
For CTE programs in other states, the Massachusetts model offers a replicable framework: dedicated state capital funding for CTE infrastructure, distributed across both regional vocational schools and comprehensive high schools, tied explicitly to workforce demand and credential attainment. The question isn’t whether other states will follow. It’s how quickly they can build the political will to fund it.
As Massachusetts MAVA’s Sharek put it: “We look forward to continuing our partnership with state leaders to build on this momentum and ensure that every student who seeks a vocational technical and agricultural education has the opportunity to pursue one.”
Sources:
- Governor Healey Announces $70 Million to Expand CTE at 28 Schools, Add 2,500 Seats — Mass.gov
- Healey announces funding of 2,500 vocational education seats across Massachusetts — Lowell Sun
- Editorial: State funding helping expand voc-tech reach — Sentinel and Enterprise
- Massachusetts invests $70M to expand vocational education — Boston 25 News
- The Job Market Is Changing. How CTE Can Keep Up — EdWeek
