Career-themed schools in San Antonio tackle job skills – and inequality

CAST Tech, the newest public high school in San Antonio, looks like an outpost of Google. Fiber optic cables run along the ceilings and a cybersecurity lab occupies the basement.

The school, located in the heart of San Antonio’s slowly revitalizing downtown, is just a stone’s throw from some of the city’s big employers. That makes it easy for business executives to pop by – and they do. This past academic year, the school entertained dozens of local business leaders as guest speakers and, nearly every week, students welcomed tech employees who serve as mentors.   

All of this is by design. CAST Tech, an in-district charter school which opened last fall with 175 freshmen, is the first of three career-themed public high schools planned for the city. The schools are the brainchild of Charles Butt, a big donor to local education causes and chairman of H-E-B, the region’s largest grocery store chain.

Modeled in part on California’s High Tech High charter network, business-backed programs in Georgia and South Carolina, and STEM