At most, I would use him as an ambassador for ongoing discussions regarding reforming Career & Technical Education. He has been pretty outspoken about the need to bring back respectability to learning trades and other "working class" jobs that also may pay very well. That's a hot topic in education reform circles right now as well. Because both liberals and conservatives alike profess that if CTE were to make a big resurgence, they do not want to see it become merely a reflection of pre-existing socio-economic divide.
Traditionally middle class and upper middle class viewed CTE as inferior or a trap and are thus avoiding it and going onto traditional university and advanced degree programs. Therefore, CTE was a way to funnel wide swaths of people into the trades by virtue of the family's socio-economic status and disability diagnosis, with little regard for meritocracy. And yes, there were formal pushes by education professionals to funnel these students into that path for those reasons.
But given the economic climate and given the crisis the university system is in, with not only financial burden on students, but also in applicability of course content and post-school outcomes, CTE is being given a serious second look. Liberals, remembering the past, tend to be much more hesitant to move forward with it, but there is a greater consensus that something with CTE must come back--even if reformed.
