2026

By Geena Monahan
A new state policy requiring vocational schools to admit students through a lottery is drawing criticism from state Rep. Adam Scanlon (D-North Attleborough) and local families, who say the change could leave qualified students without seats at schools like Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical.
In a recent statement, Scanlon criticized the admissions changes approved by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (MBESE) , arguing the policy replaces a merit-based admissions process with what he described as “a game of chance.”
“This lottery system is tearing families apart,” Scanlon said. “Siblings who have dreamed of attending the same school can be split up purely by chance, and students with special needs often lose out because the system doesn’t account for their unique challenges.”

2025

By Adam Bass

Students should not be selected for admission to vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts by lottery, a panel of state educators said Tuesday.
The panel, consisting of school and business leaders in cities including Brockton, Springfield and Worcester, preferred the previous system of selection based on interviews, grades and recommendations.

SOURCE: MASS LIVE WORCESTER
By Jonah Frangios

Some students keep perfect attendance, stay out of trouble, and bring home report cards that earn a spot on the fridge. They dream of becoming a welder, carpenter or electrician.
Typically, these students easily receive a stamp of approval from admissions officers at local technical schools.
But, starting next school year, their odds are up in the air because of a new state-mandated lottery system……
SOURCE:
https://www.eagletribune.com/news/merrimack_valley/new-lottery-for-trade-school-admission-draws-fire/article_17b17adf-ecf4-4693-a24f-6f63584b9e04.html
By David Mancuso
On Tuesday, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to support a weighted lottery for vocational school admissions, scuttling yet another crucial set of state education standards. Striving for excellence in education in the Commonwealth appears to be a thing of the past.
The real issue – 8,000 students remain unable to attend a public vocational school due to a shortage of seats - remains maddeningly unresolved.
by Michael Jonas
IN THE END, no one seems entirely happy with the outcome, and in the messy give and take of democratic decision-making that’s often hailed as a sign that the system is working.
Eight years after a contentious debate over admission policies governing the state’s vocational-technical high schools first kicked into gear, it ended on Tuesday with an 8-2 vote of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to have seats at the schools awarded through a lottery system.
Vocational high schools have become increasingly popular choices, but that has put a spotlight on their competitive admissions process. With demand far outstripping supply, more than 40 percent of the roughly 20,000 eighth grade students who applied to a vocational high school in 2023 were turned down under a system that lets schools rank applicants by middle school grades, attendance records, and discipline history. ription
By SAM DRYSDALE State House News Service and Sun Chronicle staff
BOSTON — Career technical schools in Massachusetts will use a lottery system to admit students when there are more applicants than available seats, an approach that supporters say will ensure fairness and critics warn will water down education standards.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-2 Tuesday to advance new regulations from Gov. Maura Healey’s administration that will require the state’s 29 career technical education districts to use the lottery system starting in the 2026-27 school year.
Vocational programs have become increasingly popular in Massachusetts. According to a Lawyers for Civil Rights federal civil rights complaint that kicked off the state’s pursuit of the reform, during the 2020-21 school year 18,500 rising ninth graders applied for 10,616 available seats in the state’s CTE schools.
A lottery system could exclude even the most qualified and motivated students while admitting others who are not. This will not solve the statewide access problem ― it will simply reshuffle the slots.
By Karen Burgio
By David Mancuso
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education canceled its scheduled subcommittee meeting examining the impact of a lottery on vocational school admissions.
After all, it would seem like a pointless exercise given that the Healey-Driscoll administration has come out in favor of the controversial overhaul of voke admissions.
The final vote on the proposal to implement a weighted lottery will now take place at the state ed board meeting on May 20.
Dr. Michael F. Fitzpatrick, superintendent-director
Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District
As a voc-tech education practitioner of 53 years who takes great pride in the proven success of career technical high schools, I attended the Massachusetts Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE) meeting on April 29. I spoke publicly and asked the board to reject any proposal to abandon future workforce standards that interfere with home rule by mandating an admissions lottery. I encouraged the board to embrace a mutually respectful statewide partnership with vocational educators and local policymakers.
By Christopher Huffaker

The Massachusetts Legislature is considering blocking a proposed change to lottery admissions for the state’s popular trade high schools, even as other power brokers in the state have lined up on the other side.
State education leaders had taken steps to move to lottery-based admissions following criticism by advocates who argue the existing admissions process locks many marginalized students o ut. But after lobbying efforts from some of the vocational schools themselves, Massachusetts House lawmakers have now taken actionto prohibit the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from making any admissions changes before the 2027-28 school year and instead create a new task force to further study the issue……….Click to read full article
By David Mancuso

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has finallyclarified how it determines if vocational schools are complying with legal requirements to admit student populations reflective of the socio-demographics of the districts they serve.
The long overdue clarity strikes at the heart of the ongoing state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s “fairness” debate comes as DESE tries to justify shoving an admissions lottery down vocational school administrators’ throats.
The Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators told Contrarian Boston they were notified of DESE’s new clarity on proportionality on April 10.
On April 18, the public comment period closed on DESE’s proposal to alter vocational school admissions to include a weighted lottery. That proposal was contrived by DESE and lottery advocates all while the department neglected to tell anyone what metrics were being used to judge whether vokes achieved the state’s anti-discrimination goals………….Click to read full article
By SUSAN LaHOUD
A state legislative committee is proposing a pause on a controversial move by the Healey administration to change admissions policy for vocational and technical schools to include a lottery system.
The changes being considered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are opposed by a number of area superintendents and state Rep. Adam Scanlon, D-North Attleboro. Click to read full article
By Matt Stout and Anjali Huynh

….”Lawmakers also pushed back on another Healey administration proposal. The state education department in February proposed to change how vocational schools admit students by using lotteries, rather than ranking students based on criteria such as grades.
The House budget would instead create a 15-member task force to review school policies, with a report due in September 2026, and prohibit education officials from changing admissions regulations until after that report was completed.”
by David Mancuso
Tim Murray, former Lt. Governor, now President and CEO of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, has come out squarely against the Healey-Driscoll administration’s efforts to engineer a lottery for vocational and technical school admissions.
Following a Chamber press release, Murray headlined the 39th Annual Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators Outstanding Vocational Technical Student Awards Ceremony in Worcester’s Mechanics Hall where he threw down the gauntlet.
By David Mancuso

At the March meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, state ed officials threw a curveball.
In a plan that all but came out of left field, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education proposed a “weighted lottery” for vocational school admissions.
By Susan LaHoud
A number of area superintendents and a local state rep are opposed to newly-proposed rules by the state Department of Education on the creation of a lottery system for vocational and technical school admissions.
Following Observer's coverage of the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)'s radical new admission requirements for vocational schools (What Could Possibly Go Wrong?), Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical School Superintendent, Dr. Karen Maguire reached out.
Education officials agreed Monday to seek public feedback on updated regulations that allow more students with serious discipline problems and chronic unexcused absences to be admitted to the state's expensive and overburdened vocational (aka career technical education) schools. The 'reformed' system incorporates a weighted lottery system into the admissions process for vocational schools, after advocates decried a previous proposal they argued could still limit access for students from lower-income communities.
By David Mancuso
With their latest bumbling and fumbling with vocational school admissions policies, state education officials continue to cling to an unnecessary admissions lottery.
We need to add more seats to meet the demand from students — and employers
Hands-on skills are staging a comeback at leading-edge districts, driven by high college costs and demand for more career choices

2024

State policy makers should address an underlying access problem by expanding the number of seats in Massachusetts vocational-technical high schools rather than changing the schools’ admissions policies, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.
State ed board weighing changes in face of ongoing acceptance disparities

2026

3.19.2026 • Northstar Reporter: Vocational school admissions lottery draws criticism

2025

6.24.25 • MassLive: ‘Destructive’: Educators blast new Mass. admission lottery for vocational schools

6.1.2025 • The Eagle Tribune: New lottery for trade school admission draws fire

5.21.2025 • Contrarian Boston: Taking a page from the MAGA playbook? The Healey-Driscoll administration guts voke school admissions standards in ideologically-driven overhaul

5.20.2025 • Commonwealth Beacon: State board approves lottery admissions for vocational high schools Vote comes after nearly a decade of pressure for change

5.20.2025 • Sun Chronicle: State education board votes for weighted lottery system for vocational school admissions

5.17.2025 • The Boston Globe Op-Ed: Lottery isn’t the solution for Massachusetts vocational schools

5.15.2025 • Contrarian Boston: The debate on an admissions lottery for vokes appears over, or is it? Big questions remain.

5.3.2025 • Milford Daily News Op-Ed: Blackstone Valley Tech leader speaks out against lottery mandate for voke schools

5.2.2025 • The Boston Globe: Mass. House moves to block vocational school lottery admissions

4.29.2025 • Contrarian Boston: Stop the dodging: Education leaders need to come clean on the voke admissions lottery proposal

4.22.2025 • The Sun Chronicle: Mass. House committee approves provision to pause plan for lottery admission system for voke schools

4.16.2025 • The Boston Globe: ‘We can’t be paralyzed by ... Washington’: Mass. House proposes $61 billion budget that gives millions to fight Trump

4.15.2025 • Contrarian Boston: Growing opposition: Former Lt. Governor Tim Murray and the Worcester Chamber speak out against a voke admission lottery

4.8.2025 • Contrarian Boston: Unintended consequences hang in the balance on voke school admissions debate

3.29.2025 • The Sun Chronicle: Proposed lottery for vocational and technical school admissions opposed by Attleboro area school administrators, local state rep

3.13.25 • Franklin Observer • Supt. Karen Maguire Seeks Public Help to Preserve Tri-County Voc

3.12.25 • Franklin Observer: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

3.6.2025 • Contrarian Boston: Political pressure drives state ed officials’ call for voke admissions lottery

3.11.2025 • Commonwealth Beacon: Voc-tech schools need support to build tomorrow’s workforce

3.1.2025 • Wall Street Journal: The Schools Reviving Shop Class Offer a Hedge Against the AI Future

2024

5.3.2024 • Franklin Observer: Study Says Build More Voc Schools, Don't Change Admission Policy

11.20.2024 • Commonwealth Beacon: Vocational admissions debate getting heated

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