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We would encourage the public to be circumspect and to look at the fullest picture.
As the Sun-Gazette's article in last weekend's edition noted, Williamsport Area School District offers students 15 career and technical education courses. As the Sun-Gazette has repeatedly reported on over the past several years, school districts in our region have spent considerable time and effort to ensure career and technical education programs are best suited to meet the changing needs of students and the workforce.
We believe these measures are warranted -- essential, even. We believe this commitment to offering a wide and diverse array of educational paths best suits the future economic needs of our region and nation.
We believe our school boards understand and respect that.
We also recognize that adapting to the world's changes will sometimes require a CTE course to be discontinued so resources can be shifted to programs and offerings that better meet students' changing needs.
Such, we believe, is the case with Williamsport School Board's decision to discontinue a machine tool technology and machinist course.
While it might be easy or quick to assume discontinuing this course reflects neglect or indifference to career and technology education, we do not believe such an assumption accurately reflects the sum of what this school board and most of our region's school boards have spent years discussing, deciding and implementing.
We are confident in both the necessity of good career-based educational options in our region's schools and that the leadership of our region's school districts understand that vitality.