[johnsjmc]

I taught tech ed at the grade 7-12 levels for 30 years . I am a licensed mechanic in Ontario and I have a BSc . There are many factors leading to the decline.
Kids generally love the classes but
Parents and administrators seem to want everyone to go to university.
School admin had largely language based educations themselves. I remember only one school administrator with a tech background during my 30 yr career.
Costs are higher per student,both for equipment and the classes have lower numbers for safety reasons. The equip wears out slowly compared to a computer but the eventual replacement of the infrastructure is expensive.Many school districts put off equipment replacement/ upgrading and then closed down the programs when they could replace them with something cheaper.They are also unable to replace the teachers when they retire.New shops would need dust collectors etc to meet current standards and are seen as dirty and noisy.
Try to tell a school principal that snap-on tools are needed and they ask why not Sears craftsman.
Liability concerns are rising. The most dangerous place in a school, by number of claims is the playground(unsupervised ) followed by the gym ( running and climbing ropes etc) and science labs then the shops. shop accidents might be seen as potentially more serious but a death is very very rare.(I recall 2 in shop classes during 30 years in the whole province) and there were probably also deaths on football teams during the same years.

Our daughter is a union electrician making about $125k with overtime in a good year ,one son is just finishing an apprenticeship as a machinist.Other son has a degree in animation.
I reminded them all that they needed careers which couldn,t be exported to China or Mexico.

High school tech can cut some time off a traditional apprenticeship but as several have pointed out just the introduction to tech was worthwhile imho.
You can,t replace the experience with a picture of something on a computer screen and a lego kit.