Modern automotive work is no longer just turning wrenches. Today’s vehicles are computer-controlled, highly technical systems, and the people who diagnose, repair, and install them need both manual skill and real technical knowledge. That is the point behind a serious auto shop program: not lowering standards, but raising them to match the machinery. If you want a workforce that can manufacture, service, and support durable goods, you have to train students in the tools, systems, and discipline the job now demands. Skilled labor is not yesterday’s work. It is how you build capability, create wealth, and keep the next generation of technicians ready for what the industry has become.
Chris Dennis, assistant superintendent of the Baldwin Park Unified School District, opened the event by welcoming attendees to the grand opening of what he described as an outstanding new building. He framed the ceremony as a significant milestone for the district and then turned the program over to Superintendent Mark Stavarna.
Mark Stavarna explained that California had made a deliberate decision a few years earlier to reprioritize vocational education. In his view, that shift was justified by the increasing technical complexity of modern career pathways, particularly automotive repair. He emphasized that automotive work no longer resembles the trade as it existed decades ago. Modern vehicles are controlled by computers and require a much higher level of technical understanding.
To illustrate that point, Stavarna referred to a tour he had taken of Gale Banks's facility. What he saw there, he said, demonstrated just how advanced automotive technology has become. The visit reinforced his argument that contemporary automotive education must prepare students for a highly technical field rather than a purely mechanical one.
After praising Stavarna's leadership and judgment, Gale Banks introduced himself and placed his remarks in a local and historical context. He said he had lived in the valley since 1960 and had made his living there throughout those years. He also noted that he started his business in 1958 in Lynwood before moving into the San Gabriel Valley. His comments connected the school district's new facility to the region's longer tradition of technical work and manufacturing.
Banks recalled that when he was in school, students had access to a wide range of career technical opportunities. Auto shop was only one part of that landscape; students could also take wood shop, metal shop, machine shop, and welding. He described that era as one in which California still manufactured things. Rather than relying only on service work, the state produced durable goods that could be sold throughout the world and exported to other states, bringing outside money into California.
Banks argued that this changed in the 1980s, when educators and policymakers began treating manual arts as outdated and promoting the idea that the future belonged exclusively to so-called knowledge workers. In his view, the move toward a purely academic high school curriculum was a serious mistake. He posed a practical challenge to that mindset: someone still has to manufacture, repair, diagnose, and install durable goods, including automobiles. Those activities, he said, are fundamental to creating wealth.
Banks tied that economic argument directly to employment. He said that while he thinks of himself as being in the wealth-distribution business through payroll, wealth must first be created before payroll can exist. That requires knowledgeable technical minds. He rejected the stigma sometimes attached to auto shop and other hands-on fields, arguing that working with one's hands does not imply a lack of intelligence. Instead, he distinguished between people who are manually skilled and the broader reality that modern technical work now demands both manual and mental skill.
He endorsed the idea that students training in the new building would be held to high standards, including maintaining strong grades in their other coursework. Banks said that was appropriate because automotive technology is advancing rapidly. As the field becomes more sophisticated, the careers available within it can provide substantial earnings and the ability to support a family well. He also connected this training to the broader green agenda, noting that anyone who intends to service modern automobiles within that framework must be highly capable and technically educated.
Banks closed by addressing the students directly. Looking at the young people present, he urged them to do well in the building because California needs them. His conclusion was that the state depends on the next generation of technically trained workers, and that these students will become the future leaders and skilled professionals who keep advanced transportation and other durable-goods industries functioning.