With rising costs and shifting values, more Black high schoolers are choosing vocational paths. But is the system prepared to support their aspirations?
For generations, Black families and their children have viewed a college degree as the ticket to upward mobility, financial security, and success. Then the pandemic happened, and Black college enrollment slumped, before slightly rebounding in recent years.
However, a growing number of Black high-school graduates — alarmed by skyrocketing college costs, stagnant wages for degree-holders, and the Trump administration’s crackdowns on student debt — are seeing trade-school education as a better investment than a four-year bachelor’s degree. Recent data from the National Clearinghouse indicate that Black student enrollment at trade schools has increased overall, particularly among Black men.
“What I actually hear Black students saying right now is, ‘I want to have autonomy. I want to have a choice,” Dr. Alaina Harper, executive director of the nonprofit OneGoal, tells Word In Black. “And I want every option after high school to be available to me.”
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