We had a shop class. What we didn't have was time to take it without skipping out on another core class. This should be required curriculum -- that was the point I took home from the article.

States and school districts still have a fair amount of control over curricula, so "the US" does mandate hands-on classes in some places. My high school had a mandatory shop class (student's choice of woods or metals). Middle school had mandatory home ec for all genders.

We didn't skip out on another class, it was just part of the curriculum. This was 8th grade, and I transferred out after that year, so I don't know what they did in High School.