Federal assistance is limited to half of the total expenditure, and the state or local districts must pay at least half. The state may decide to encourage local programs by paying half of the cost, or the state may require the local district to bear this half or some part of it. Throughout the history of the program, state government expenditures in the aggregate have usually matched or exceeded the Federal expenditures, while local districts all together have spent more than either Federal or state governments. Today, Federal funds account for only one-fifth of the nation's expenditures for vocational education. The greatest impact of the matching fund principle has been in initially encouraging the poorest states and school districts to spend enough to obtain their full allocation of outside funds.

National defense considerations have been the major reason behind most Federal training expenditures in recent decades. During World War 2, about 7.5 million persons were enrolled in courses organized under two special programs administered by state and local school authorities: (1) Vocational Education for National Defense, and (2) War Production Training. The total cost of the five year program was $297 million. For the Smith-Hughes, George-Barden, and National Defense Act of 1958, the cumulative total of Federal expenditures in 42 years was only about $740 million.

No comparable measures are available of enrollments and expenditures for private vocational education training. There are a great number and variety of private commercial schools, trade schools and technical schools. In addition, many large corporations operate their own formal training programs. A recent study indicated that 85 per cent of the nation's largest corporations conducted educational programs involving some class meetings and examinations.