More than 46,000 students in Washtenaw County, Michigan, will begin having greater access to career and technical education during the 2026–27 school year as a result of a November 2025 ballot measure establishing a new dedicated funding stream. This significant step forward follows years of research and collaboration involving the county's school districts, employers, higher education institutions, community members, and the University of Michigan's Youth Policy Lab.
Before passage of the ballot measure, Washtenaw Intermediate School District was one of only 15 intermediate school districts across the state without a vocational millage. The new millage is expected to generate approximately $25 million annually for 10 years, to be allocated across the county's nine public school districts to expand and improve career and technical education, commonly known as CTE.
In 2024, WISD partnered with the Youth Policy Lab, a joint research center of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Institute for Social Research, after the lab published statewide analyses of racial and socioeconomic disparities in Michigan's CTE system.
This collaboration produced a report, "Inequities in CTE Access in Washtenaw County," that revealed county students had access to fewer programs than the statewide average. Opportunities also varied substantially depending on a student's district and school.
Low-income, Black, and Hispanic students were less likely to attend schools with on-campus CTE programs and had access to fewer programs than their white and more affluent peers. The disparities were particularly pronounced in fields connected to high-wage, high-demand careers.
"Compared with state averages, these students have access to fewer programs," said lead author Brian Jacob, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and faculty co-director of the Youth Policy Lab at U-M.
The researchers traced some of those disparities to the county's fragmented approach. Without dedicated countywide funding, districts historically operated programs independently or through consortium agreements. As a result, a student's opportunities largely depended on where they lived and attended school.
Similar structural challenges can arise in communities across the country, particularly where districts vary in size, resources, transportation options, and proximity to employers or technical facilities. The study illustrates how detailed local data can reveal barriers that broader enrollment figures may overlook.
The report recommended a more unified countywide system, along with additional programs at comprehensive high schools and shared locations. It also identified transportation, scheduling, and sustainable funding as barriers that needed to be addressed.
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