On February 15, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform held a hearing on a bill (H.R. 366) to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (P.L. 105-332). House and Senate committees approved similar legislation last year, but no final action took place before the 108th Congress adjourned for the year (see The Source, 9/24/04).
Sponsored by Chair Mike Castle (R-DE), the Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act would reauthorize vocational and technical education programs through FY2011. The measure would strengthen accountability of the programs by requiring local educational agencies to establish adjusted levels of performance to complement the state levels of performance under current law. The bill also would require states to establish model sequences of courses to emphasize further student academic and technical achievement.
Rep. Castle said that the original Perkins law “aims to prepare youth and adults for the future by building their academic and technical skills in preparation for postsecondary education and/or employment,” adding, “The bill we are examining today enhances Perkins by ensuring both secondary and postsecondary students receiving assistance through the program are acquiring rigorous academic and technical skills and will have the opportunity to transition into further education and/or successful employment.”
Stating that “vocational and technical education works,” Ranking Member Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) expressed her support for certain provisions in the reauthorization bill: “Although H.R. 366 does not restore pre-1998 set-asides for special populations and non-traditional fields, I am pleased that as a result of last year’s negotiations, it does make participation in non-traditional fields a core performance indicator for secondary schools and also requires local programs to help prepare special populations, such as displaced homemakers and single parents, for high skill occupations that will lead to self-sufficiency.”
Patrick Ainsworth, director of the Secondary, Postsecondary, and Adult Leadership Division at the California Department of Education, stressed the importance of nontraditional occupations, stating, “Promoting students in pursuit of nontraditional careers is an important economic self-sufficiency strategy for the students of California, and a wise economic development strategy. Many employers in California have corporate diversity policies and goals that have led them to develop strong partnerships with local Career Technical Education programs to support the success of nontraditional students in pursuing careers in their industry. They know that having access to a larger workforce pool is good business and we know it is good education.”
Citing a Women Work! report that found that the number of single mothers in California had risen by 90 percent in the past decade, Mr. Ainsworth stated, “Investing state and federal career technical education funds in the educational attainment of single parents benefits families and local communities,” adding, “Assisting low-income women to obtain job skills through career and technical education has a significant impact not only on their own well-being, but also on that of their children and other family members. Children whose mothers go back to school have higher aspirations, take education more seriously and work harder in school. And, when low-income mothers secure employment offering higher wages and better benefits as a result of their education, child poverty levels decrease.”
Joanna Kister, a private educational consultant, expressed her support for the implementation of model sequences of courses, saying that they would “support the more comprehensive integration of academic and career technical studies and help broaden career awareness. Model sequences of courses can help educators establish consistent expectations for student performances and connect classroom experiences to student goals…Finally, model sequences of courses can reinforce the historic federal role of driving innovation, program improvement and quality in career technical education.”
The subcommittee also heard testimony from Emily Simmons, a senior in the Allied Health program at Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore County, Maryland. Ms. Simmons explained that her program “is similar to what H.R. 366 calls a model sequence of courses. It is an organized set of classes that progressively connect and build on one another. I understand the interrelatedness of academic and technical classes and how what I am learning will be applied in the real world.” Ms. Simmons added, “While I am not an astute legislative analyst, what I understand of H.R. 366 is that it is good policy that will dramatically increase the availability of high quality career technical programs, like the one I am in. The model sequences of courses concept is a good one, as it embodies all the elements of a quality career technical education program…This concept, model sequences of courses, will give more students access to quality career technical education; and quality career technical education will help prepare more students for success in college, careers and life.”
