Publisher's Synopsis
After decades of off-shoring and downsizing that have left blue collar workers obsolete and stranded, the United States is now on the verge of an industrial renaissance. A decades-long series of idealistic educational policies with the expressed goal of getting every student to go to college has left a generation of potential workers out of the system. Touted as a progressive, egalitarian institution providing opportunity even to those with the greatest need, the American secondary school system has in fact deepened existing inequalities. Taking a page from the successful experience of countries like Germany and Austria, where youth unemployment is a mere 7%, the authors call for a radical reevaluation of the idea of vocational training, long discredited as an instrument of tracking.
