Research On US Federal Vocational And Technical Education Legislation (1917-2007)

After the Smith-Hughes Act had been passed in 1917, the fundamental frame of federal support for higher and secondary vocational& technical education has been constructed in the United States of America. Over the past ninety years, under the guidance and encouragement of the federal legislation, the US vocational& technical education has stepped into the ranks of the world's developed countries, which contributed a great deal to the growth of the U.S. economy, state safety, social fairness and the development of the individuals in different periods. To study the development and changes of the legislation of the U.S. federal vocational& technical education is of momentous current significance to advance the Chinese vocational& technical education by law.In the recent ninety years, the legislation of the federal vocational& technical education has constantly adjusted its objectives to meet the national needs of the USA in different periods, which has experienced three historical periods, including the nation-oriented objective, the individual employment-oriented objective, and the individual's lifelong development-oriented objective. And meanwhile, it constantly updates its funding ideas, funding targets, funding formula, management ideas and means, which entirely reflects its features, i.e. from isolation, closeness, rigidness to integration, openness, and flexibility respectively. The study of its changes may witness not only the consistency between the objective of its legislation and the objective of the U.S. federation, the state and the individuals, but also the mutual influence among the legislation of the vocational& technical education both in the U.S. and abroad, and the inseparable relationship between the legislation of the vocational& technical education and the U.S. politics, economy, culture and education. At the same time, a further study of the legislative main body, procedures, enforcement, supervision and realization will lead to a comparatively accurate understanding of the inherent spirit in the legislation of federal vocational& technical education.Concentrating on the mentioned ideas, the article is mainly composed of the preface and the contents. After reviewing the domestic and foreign researches, the preface presents the train of thought, focal points, methods and significance of the present study.The main body of the present article contains four chapters, among which the first three are key points of the present research, with their aims to discuss the historical order of the development and changes of the federal vocational& technical education legislation. As no law is an isolated phenomenon, the article selects three representative acts to highlight the essence of legislative changes of the focus, funding formula and management means of the federal vocational& technical education in different periods of time. Starting from the intrinsic mechanism of legislative changes, the article devotes mainly to the background, institutional foundation and process of legislation in the three different periods, i.e. the internal and external advancing legislative factors lead to the enactment of legislations, and the enactment and enforcement of the legislations respond to the overall changing spirit of the times in return. Meanwhile, the Amendment Act of the federal vocational& technical education and other related bills of different periods are also involved in this part. From the perspective of global competition, the fourth chapter, guided by the science of law, politics, institution and economy theories, summarizes the impetus of legislative changes in the federal vocational& technical education.