Masonry Magazine November 2003 Page. 42
Training
Be Aware of Potential for Changes in Vocational Training Funding
Steve Miller
Trade and Industrial Education Construction Trades Consultant
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
As a masonry contractor or member of a related brick, block or concrete industry you must be concerned with the quality of your future workforce. According to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction follow-up surveys of students who took masonry courses in high school, the numbers reveal that many students are now in the industry as a result of taking and completing a masonry course.
In addition to working directly after high school, significant numbers of students who have begun either a community college or four-year college education also respond that their continued schooling relates to their high school masonry courses. High school career and technical (vocational) training have not only given them technical skills, but also knowledge of a viable career option.
This conduit from the classroom to the job site is in jeopardy! If career and technical education changes take place as proposed, there is a very good probability that the conduit from classrooms to careers in the masonry industry will be severed.
Since the Smith Hughes Act of 1917, there have been federal categorical dollars for vocational education now called career and technical education-in America's high schools. These dollars, known since 1998 as Carl D. Perkins III funds, have been provided to states with the mandate that they be used to provide students with technical skills and career exploration opportunities. Many of the students being served by Perkins III funds only remain in school because they have an opportunity sometime during the school day to spend an hour or two working with their hands learning a trade.
According to Donna Harris-Aikens, Director of Government Relations, National Association for Director's of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEC), career and technical education (CTE) was designed to provide students with opportunities to explore career paths and gain technical skills. We have learned that a strong CTE system that integrates technical and academic skill attainment can help sustain America's economy, which now depends on having a highly skilled workforce, coupled with workers having the capacity to adapt as jobs evolve with emerging technologies. CTE is growing and improving to meet these demands. In fact, communities and states around the nation are meeting these demands, in part, by implementing the rigorous provisions of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (Perkins Act). The last time Congress updated this law was in 1998, and legislators plan to revisit this statute in the near future.
Unfortunately, the President unveiled a Perkins reauthorization proposal in early February that does not appear to value the benefits of the CTE system infrastructure, which currently serves as the springboard from which innovative and quality practices grow. Currently, the plan recommends not only a substantial cut in funding (from $1.33 to $1 billion), but also appears to severely limit students' access to secondary CTE programs. The other major change in the Administration proposal is that interested schools would have to complete a grant application in order to compete for the funds, hampering their ability to do long-term planning (Harris-Aikens, NAS-DCTEC, 2003).
While the proposal talks about providing grants for innovation, it is impossible to keep our current masonry programs functioning on grants. This jeopardizes the education of nearly 70,000 students who are taking a high school Trade and Industrial Education Course, many of whom are learning technical skills before walking onto your job site!
Another implication is the proposal for the reauthorization of the Carl
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