CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act

Act of Congress in the United States

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ5040014 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act was first authorized by the federal government in 1984 and reauthorized in 1990 (Perkins II), 1998 (Perkins III), 2006 (Perkins IV), and 2018 (Perkins V). Named for Carl D. Perkins, the act aims to increase the quality of technical education within the United States in order to help the economy.

On July 31, 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the re-authorization of the Act of 2018. The new law, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century (Perkins V) Act, was passed almost unanimously by Congress.

The Perkins IV re-authorization included three major areas of revision:

Using the term "career and technical education" instead of "vocational education"

Maintaining the Tech Prep program as a separate federal funding stream within the legislation

Maintaining state administrative funding at 5 percent of a state's allocation

The Perkins IV law also included new requirements for “programs of study” that link academic and technical content across secondary and post-secondary education, and strengthened local accountability provisions that will ensure continuous program improvement.

The Perkins Act provides $1.2 billion in federal support for career and technical education programs in all 50 States, including support for integrated career pathways programs. The law was extended through 2024.

Notes

Further reading

Congressional Research Service. Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V): A Primer (2022) online

Woodley, Cynthia Dominick. "An historical analysis of the philosophies of the vocational education leaders in relation to the 1990 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments" (EdD dissertation, University of Central Florida; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1992. 9237173).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act” as act of Congress in the United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Carl, Perkins and Vocational.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1984, 1990, 1998, 2006—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Carl, Perkins and Vocational providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act”, the useful work is to connect “act of Congress in the United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5040014. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1984, 1990, 1998 and 2006.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act primary sources, Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act archive and Carl research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.