COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND CAREER READINESS PUBLIC HEARING
STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PA
IRVIS OFFICE BUILDING ROOM G-50
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2 015 9:32 A.M.
PRESENTATION ON HR 102 CAREER TRAINING PROGRAMS
BEFORE: HONORABLE SETH GROVE, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE HARRY LEWIS HONORABLE MIKE TOBASH HONORABLE PATRICK HARKINS, DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 2
ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: HONORABLE STANLEY SAYLOR HONORABLE KRISTIN PHILLIPS-HILL HONORABLE MARK LONGIETTI
COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: NICHOLE DUFFY MAJORITY SENIOR EDUCATION ADVISOR KAREN SEIVARD MAJORITY SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL JONATHAN BERGER MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL BIACCHI MAJORITY RESEARCH ANALYST JESSICA HENNINGER MAJORITY LEGISLATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
CHRIS WAKELEY DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRACEY ANN MCLAUGHLIN DEMOCRATIC RESEARCH ANALYST MARLENA MILLER DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT 3
I N D E X
TESTIFIERS
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NAME PAGE
DIANE BOSAK ACTING DEPUTY SECRETARY, WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, 3 PA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY...... 8 1
ED LEGGE DIVISION CHIEF, CENTER FOR WORKFORCE INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS... 11
LEE BURKET DIRECTOR, PDE BUREAU OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION...... 31
HANNAH SMITH-BRUBAKER DEPUTY SECRETARY, MARKET DEVELOPMENT, PA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE...... 58
JACQUELINE CULLEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PA ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL ADMINISTRATORS...... 78
ACCOMPANIED BY:
THOMAS ALLEN PRESIDENT, PA ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL ADMINISTRATORS; ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR, EASTERN CENTER FOR ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY
WALTER SLAUCH VICE PRESIDENT, PA ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL ADMINISTRATORS; ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR, CENTRAL MONTCO TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
DAVID THOMAS ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR, YORK COUNTY SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY 4
I N D E X
TESTIFIERS (cont’d)
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NAME PAGE
VICKI SMITH BOARD PRESIDENT, HOMER CENTER SCHOOL DISTRICT, ON BEHALF OF PA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION...... 98
ERIC WOLFGANG BOARD PRESIDENT, CENTRAL YORK SCHOOL DISTRICT ON BEHALF OF PA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION...... 104
JAMES BUCKHEIT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS...... 110
DAVID C. NAMEY PRESIDENT, DEPARTMENT OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL STUDIES, PA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION...... 122
SUBMITTED WRITTEN TESTIMONY
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(See submitted written testimony and handouts online.) 5
P R O C E E D I N G S
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2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: — HR 102, prime
3 sponsored by Education Majority Chairman Stan Saylor and
4 Minority Chairman James Roebuck.
5 I'm State Representative Seth Grove, who's been
6 tasked with chairing the Select Committee, along with
7 Representative Patrick Harkins to my left.
8 I'd like to remind Members, testifiers, and
9 guests, this Committee hearing is being tape-recorded, it's
10 been streamed live, and I believe PCN is picking up live as
11 well. I ’d also like to ask everyone to silence your phones
12 and electronic devices.
13 I’d like to start off this meeting with the
14 Pledge of Allegiance, and Representative Harkins, could you
15 lead us?
16 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Yes.
17
18 (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.)
19
20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: W e ’ll start off with
21 introductions. Again, I ’m State Representative Seth Grove,
22 York County.
23 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Good morning. I ’m
24 Pat Harkins, [microphone turned off]. 6
1 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Kristin Hill, 93rd
2 District, Southern York County.
3 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Good morning. Harry
4 Lewis, 74th District, Chester County.
5 REPRESENTATIVE LONGIETTI: Good morning. Mark
6 Longietti. I represent the 7th District in Mercer County.
7 MR. BIACCHI: Mike Biacchi, Research Analyst.
8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you. I have
9 brief comments, as well as Representative Harkins.
10 Generally here, how do we do a better job
11 matching up the workers of tomorrow with the careers of
12 tomorrow? How do we match up the workers today with the
13 careers of today? How do we end the biases we feel towards
14 technical education in the Commonwealth? These are not new
15 questions, and in fact many programs and policies have been
16 adopted to address them.
17 But we'll dive deeper into these policies and
18 programs and demand more answers in order to fully complete
19 our work. We will work diligently and comprehensively, as
20 I feel it is imperative for the future of our economic
21 viability as our Commonwealth. I truly believe
22 Pennsylvania is on the cusp of being an economic
23 powerhouse, and what we do today will set our fate in the
24 future.
25 I thank the testifiers today for their time in 7
1 helping us understand where career and technical education
2 is today. With over a year until this Committee report is
3 due, w e ’re planning several hearings and tours. This
4 morning, we are building a foundation focusing on K through
5 12 career and technical education. In developing policy, I
6 personally ask what is happening now and how do we improve
7 it? That is our goal for our first two hearings.
8 Our next hearing will be Thursday, May 28th, at
9 Reading Community College. We will be focused on higher
10 education, career and technical education, and a tour of
11 Reading Community College, followed by a roundtable on June
12 11th hosted by Representative Mike Tobash on Act 168,
13 followed by another tour.
14 I fully believe the more work we do as a Select
15 Committee, the better the final product we will develop.
16 My goal is to make everyone on this Select Committee,
17 whether they like it or not, an expert in career and
18 technical education.
19 With that said, Representative Harkins, do you
20 have any opening comments?
21 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Thank you,
22 Representative Grove.
23 I ’d just like to add that I look forward to
24 working with all the Members, all the stakeholders. My
25 background in high school was Erie Tech Memorial, a degree 8
1 in electronics and electricity that I still use to this
2 day. I also had the good fortune of meeting my wife there,
3 but that’s for another day.
4 But, no, I just look forward to traveling around
5 the State, getting to know more about the trades, and
6 putting more of an emphasis on the trades, working with
7 everyone.
8 Thank you very much.
9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
10 As this Committee was borne out of
11 bipartisanship, we hope to have a final bipartisan product
12 moving forward working with all stakeholders and I look
13 forward to all the input from every stakeholder, every
14 testifier, and the countless people I have met with. There
15 is a ton of excitement, I think, for this Select Committee,
16 and hopefully we can do good due diligence through -- by
17 all the stakeholders through this process.
18 With that, I ’d like to call our first testifier,
19 Diane Bosak, Acting Deputy Secretary of Workforce
20 Development for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and
21 Industry. Welcome this morning.
22 MS. BOSAK: Thank you.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: And feel free to start
24 when you’re comfortable.
25 MS. BOSAK: Okay. Good morning. Chairman Grove, 9
1 Chairman Harkins, and the Members of the House Education
2 and Select Subcommittee on Technical Education and Career
3 Readiness. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you
4 this morning regarding technical education and career
5 readiness in the Commonwealth, particularly as these relate
6 to the workforce development.
7 The Department of Labor and Industry is committed
8 to Governor Wolf's priorities of jobs that pay, government
9 that works, and schools that teach. The role the
10 Department's Workforce Development activities plan of
11 supporting the Governor's philosophy is twofold:
12 • By engaging stakeholders across the workforce
13 and service delivery spectrum, including
14 employers, education, and training providers
15 and jobseekers, we are helping to create an
16 economy that provides family-sustaining jobs
17 for Pennsylvanians.
18 • By providing Pennsylvanians the skills that
19 employers are looking for, our Workforce
20 Development system, with 22 local Workforce
21 Boards and 65 CareerLink Centers, is preparing
22 Pennsylvanians for family-sustaining jobs.
23
24 Today, we'll describe one proposed and four
25 existing workforce development initiatives in which the 10
1 Department carries out in areas related to technical
2 education and career readiness. The Career and Technical
3 Education Initiative, Business-Education Partnership
4 Grants, Apprenticeship Program Grants, and industry
5 partnerships, all these programs encourage local and
6 regional collaboration and strong connections between
7 employers and the workforce system.
8 As you may be aware, Governor Wolf's budget
9 provides for a major new investment in career and technical
10 education taking the first step toward modernizing and
11 transforming what has often been a neglected and
12 underperforming part of the State's educational and
13 workforce development system. The budget provides 15
14 million to help school districts partner with career and
15 technology centers, higher education institutions,
16 employers and labor organizations to train students for
17 high-demand, high-growth occupations that pay a living wage
18 and offer a career ladder. Students will have the
19 opportunity to earn college credit and industry credentials
20 and will participate in work-based learning.
21 Approximately 30 grants of up to $500,000 each
22 will be awarded with at least one in each workforce
23 investment area. The Department will administer this
24 program jointly with the Departments of Education and
25 Community and Economic Development. 11
1 I ’m going to pause for a moment in my comments
2 and ask Ed Legge from the Center for Workforce Information
3 and Analysis to provide an overview of the kinds of jobs
4 for which these initiatives will prepare students, and then
5 I will share some highlights of our other initiatives.
6 MR. LEGGE: Thanks, Diane.
7 Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the
8 opportunity to speak to you today. I ’m going to pass along
9 some labor market information as it relates to career and
10 technical education.
11 There are approximately six million people
12 employed in Pennsylvania in 2012. This is the base year we
13 used to project employment levels to the year 2022. In the
14 year 2022 employment is expected to exceed 6.5 million.
15 That equates to a projected growth rate of 7.7 percent from
16 2012 to 2022.
17 Growth rates for occupation requiring certain
18 educational levels are higher than others. Jobs requiring
19 an associate’s degree have the highest projected rate of
20 15.8 percent over that period, but the two groups most
21 closely related to trainings offered at career and
22 technical education institutions those that have some
23 postsecondary education training and long-term training or
24 apprenticeship training are close behind at 11.7 percent
25 growth rate and 9.2 percent growth rate respectively. 12
1 Job opportunities or annual openings, as we refer
2 to them, are not only a result of a growth in employment,
3 there are also a significant number of opportunities that
4 result from the need to replace workers who leave the
5 occupation. On average, only 25 percent of job openings
6 are a result of employment growth. In Pennsylvania nearly
7 200,000 job openings are projected each year. Of those,
8 more than 26,000 are expected in occupations that are
9 career- and technical education-related.
10 With above-average growth in more than 13 percent
11 of all job openings, occupations in career- and technical
12 education-related groups have a very bright employment
13 outlook. Some of the most commonly found career and
14 technical education programs include food service,
15 automotive repair, cosmetology, bookkeeping, childcare, and
16 construction trades.
17 The 10 most-common career and technical education
18 programs align to 15 distinct occupations. Of the 15
19 occupations, secretaries have the largest employment
20 followed by bookkeepers, childcare workers, and carpenters.
21 Eleven of the occupations have above-average projected
22 growth rates with CNC machine tool programmers having the
23 highest rate at 30.6 percent growth. Carpenters register
24 the next-highest projected growth rate at 17.1 percent.
25 Across the 15 occupations, more than 14,000 13
1 openings are expected each year. Average wages among the
2 15 occupations vary from a low of $20,470 for childcare
3 workers to an annual wage of $62,700 for computer network
4 specialists.
5 That’s all I have.
6 MS. BOSAK: Okay. Great. Thank you, Ed.
7 Moving on to a couple of the other initiatives of
8 the Department of Labor and Industry, Industry Partnerships
9 have been an important facet of the State’s workforce
10 development efforts. Governor Wolf’s budget provides a $10
11 million increase in funding for the Industry Partnerships
12 program. This program helps connect Pennsylvania’s
13 educational training systems with the needs of employers
14 spurring job advancement, growth, and creation by
15 prioritizing occupational areas of critical need. The
16 program enables companies in the same industry group or
17 cluster to come together on a regional basis to identify
18 their common skill needs and develop training programs to
19 meet those needs.
20 Industry Partnerships currently operate in four
21 targeted industry clusters: advanced materials and diverse
22 fine manufacturing, agriculture and food processing,
23 energy, and healthcare. With the 10 million, we hope that
24 we’ll be able to expand Industry Partnerships in the
25 Commonwealth by enabling incumbent workers to industry- 14
1 recognized credentials and move up the career ladder.
2 Industry Partnerships help open up jobs for entry-level
3 workers. In the future, career advancement of movement
4 into and up a career ladder will become even more important
5 as goals of the Industry Partnership program.
6 Another initiative, Business-Education
7 Partnerships, these grants support both existing
8 partnerships that wish to expand services and
9 constituencies on those that wish to use funds to develop a
10 new partnership. Business-Education Partnerships connect
11 local businesses with school districts to promote job
12 opportunities and career pathways that engage students,
13 parents, and educators in technical career opportunities.
14 The partnerships connect these audiences to provide career-
15 related experiences and exposure opportunities for students
16 through soft skills development, internships, workplace
17 shadowing, career mentoring, and more.
18 A partnership is required to include the local
19 Workforce Investment Board, business entities, school
20 districts, career and technical schools, and institutions
21 of higher education. Additional partners -- community-
22 based organizations, trade associations, economic
23 development entities, and others -- may also be included.
24 I ’ve highlighted a few examples of Business-Education
25 Partnerships in my written testimony. 15
1 Another initiative is our Apprenticeship Program
2 grants. Pennsylvania has been promoting and establishing
3 the standards for Apprenticeship Programs since 1961.
4 Registered Apprenticeship Programs meet the skilled
5 workforce needs of industry by training thousands of
6 individuals for lifelong careers. Incorporating registered
7 Apprenticeship Programs directly into the workforce
8 development system strengthens Pennsylvania’s local and
9 regional economies by developing highly trained and
10 educated residents. It also helps Pennsylvania meet
11 important performance goals for workforce development. The
12 goal of Apprenticeship Programs is to provide funding to
13 improve and enhance existing Apprenticeship Programs in
14 Pennsylvania so that apprentices acquire the skills
15 necessary to compete in the 21st century economy.
16 An exciting new endeavor for the Department, as
17 you may or may not be aware, Congress last summer passed
18 the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. This was a
19 rewrite of the former Workforce Investment Act. WIOA, as
20 it is known, provides a framework for States to make
21 significant changes to the workforce system that will make
22 the system more responsive to jobseekers and employers
23 alike.
24 WIOA emphasizes career pathways and sector
25 strategies. Career pathways can become a way to link the 16
1 workforce system with career and technical education at the
2 secondary and postsecondary levels and align this with
3 high-demand occupations. Sector strategies can be a way to
4 increase employer engagement across the workforce system,
5 as well as to connect more employers to career and
6 technical education at the career and technical centers and
7 the community colleges.
8 As we begin to develop the State Workforce Plan,
9 we would be looking at ways to promote linkages beyond the
10 public workforce system and to our State agency partners
11 and local and regional partners. And I might add here that
12 we will be beginning our State planning process this
13 Thursday with stakeholders convening in Harrisburg.
14 Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to
15 provide these remarks. The Department of Labor and
16 Industry is committed to providing Pennsylvanians with the
17 appropriate job skills to make them competitive in the 21st
18 century job market. Please support the Department’s
19 efforts through the Career and Educational Training
20 Initiative Industry Partnerships program and other programs
21 that we continue to prepare Pennsylvania’s workforce for
22 future challenges and success.
23 I ’ll be happy to answer any questions.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much.
25 W e ’re joined by Chairman Stan Saylor, who has had 17
1 a passion for career and technical education for a number
2 of years. I thank him for his leadership and authoring HR
3 102 and appreciate his continued leadership on education
4 issues.
5 First, I want to start off by asking what are the
6 job growth rates for CTE education versus other job career
7 sectors? What are we looking at in the future compared to
8 career and tech versus other jobs?
9 MS. BOSAK: I ’m going to ask Ed to chime in here.
10 MR. LEGGE: Yeah, I believe I mentioned it in my
11 comments that the educational levels align to career and
12 technical education are looking at growth rates of 11.7
13 percent for those who get some postsecondary education in
14 line to those careers, and 9.2 percent for those that go
15 through a long-term training or apprenticeship program.
16 That compares to an overall rate for all occupations in
17 Pennsylvania, 7.7 percent.
18 Associate’s degree-trained individuals have the
19 highest growth rate. However, when looking at growth
20 rates, you've also got to look at there’s not as many
21 occupations aligned to associate degree-type jobs. So
22 while the growth rate is high, it doesn't always equate to
23 more jobs.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Okay. Within high
25 schools obviously a lot of students will go to their 18
1 guidance counselor for guidance on jobs. How are we
2 relaying job growth, jobs available down to students in
3 high school looking for a decision to be made whether
4 they’re going to go into an apprenticeship program, whether
5 they seek higher education, four-year degree, two-year
6 degree? How is that coordinated at the State level going
7 down?
8 MS. BOSAK: Well, CWIA, the Center for Workforce
9 Information and Analysis, prepares a number of reports and
10 materials that we share with guidance counselors and others
11 in the school districts and CTCs. We also are looking at
12 ways to expand our apprenticeship program so that we can
13 make more employers, students, educators, and parents aware
14 of apprenticeship opportunities. Right now, Pennsylvania,
15 we sort of have been flat in terms of employers that have
16 participated in apprenticeship programs and the number of
17 apprentices. So w e ’ve been at I think about 7 00 and some
18 employers engaged in 11,000 apprentices, but that number,
19 while it sounds high, has been fairly stagnant.
20 So we are really looking to bolster our
21 apprenticeship activities in the State and make more people
22 aware of it. I ’m not sure if you’ve seen South Carolina,
23 what they’ve done, but when they created their
24 Apprenticeship Carolina, they had far fewer employers
25 engaged in their initiative, far fewer educators as well, 19
1 and very few apprenticeship programs. And in a matter of
2 just a decade they have had enormous growth in
3 apprenticeships. And certainly we see that as a real
4 opportunity to connect with the CTCs.
5 And I ’ll also mention that it was key -- I was
6 just at the Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ competition.
7 I ’m not sure if anybody has had an opportunity to see that.
8 It was held last weekend at California University of
9 Pennsylvania, and high school students, CTC students build
10 these robots that compete with each other. It’s a large
11 competition, 67 school districts involved, and some of
12 those students walk away from that with jobs already in
13 hand.
14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Harry, go ahead.
15 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Let me ask, there are a
16 lot of technical high schools now, formerly votech schools,
17 and I am familiar with the bots and the robotic program
18 that went on. How will this connect with what your plans
19 are in helping these students? They are high school
20 students but they’re sort of in a quandary between high
21 school and community college, and they are developing some
22 apprentice programs because, as you just stated, some
23 students are ready to go out into the job force ready to be
24 productive.
25 MS. BOSAK: Well, I think we have to think about 20
1 workforce development in a more global kind of way than
2 just at least what some people think of in terms of the
3 public workforce system. And certainly the emphasis in the
4 new Federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act is on
5 career pathways. We think with the Governor’s proposed
6 Career and Technical Education Initiative, with what w e ’re
7 already doing in terms of business and education
8 partnerships, industry partnerships, there’s a way to
9 connect all these things so that students who may right now
10 be in high school and are thinking about their futures have
11 a pathway and maybe they do want to go into the workplace.
12 They have an opportunity. One of these students from the
13 BotsIQ competition has a job already lined up for when they
14 graduate from high school, but that’s not the end. There’s
15 a pathway.
16 We need to create clear pathways for students so
17 that they understand that there are future opportunities to
18 grow through additional education and training, so "stacked
19 and latticed credentials," which is a huge emphasis right
20 now in the career pathways system, so postsecondary
21 education and training through community colleges, through
22 the universities. There are many avenues for students to
23 explore, and with the emphasis in the new Federal Workforce
24 Investment Act and with our partner agencies, we hope that
25 we can make those pathways clearer for students so it’s not 21
1 just, hey, I ’ve got a job and this is the end; I can move
2 on.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative Hill.
4 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Thank you for
5 being here this morning.
6 I served as a School Board Director and I ’m very
7 familiar with career pathways as a matter of fact. The
8 school district that I served in recently changed their
9 pathways and it was a long process and it was a very
10 integrated process with our own business community and our
11 educators and members of the community.
12 I ’m concerned. These are great ideas that you’re
13 talking about. I don’t really understand how what you’re
14 talking about gets down to that local school district level
15 and how everything that you’re doing can be shared with
16 them so that it can educate them and become part of the
17 career pathways that each school district creates for their
18 own students.
19 MS. BOSAK: Obviously we have to rely a lot on
20 our partners to help share that message. It’s just not the
21 Department of Labor and Industry. It’s our State-level
22 partners, the Department of Education, DCED, but it’s also
23 our local and regional partners, the local Workforce
24 Investment Boards who are the primary applicants for
25 Industry Partnerships and the Business-Education 22
1 Partnerships. So we really need to rely on them to be
2 making those local connections.
3 As we develop our State plan and implement the
4 Federal Workforce Investment Act, there are really strong
5 requirements for local and regional planning and employer
6 engagement and how you connect to community colleges and
7 career and technical education. So w e ’ll be looking to
8 provide guidance to local and regional boards about how
9 they can do those things.
10 We ourselves, we don’t necessarily have the
11 direct relationships with the CTCs. A lot of our work is
12 with our partners.
13 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: So if I understand
14 this correctly, you have regional boards in York County and
15 in Chester County and all throughout the Commonwealth, and
16 their job is to then take the information that you’ve
17 pushed down to them and to send it out to our career and
18 technical schools and to our local high schools?
19 MS. BOSAK: There are —
20 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Is that the way it
21 works?
22 MS. BOSAK: There are 22 local Workforce
23 Investment Boards and they are responsible for connecting
24 with local employers, training providers, whether those are
25 CTCs or community colleges or universities or trade 23
1 schools. They’re making those connections. And then in
2 regions that several local Workforce Investment Boards
3 would come together, and that’s the regional planning
4 process. So that’s what w e ’re trying to, as we look and go
5 about implementing the Federal law, how we can improve and
6 make those connection points better and that we are sharing
7 information in a more broad way.
8 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: But that
9 information is getting down to the local high school level
10 to middle schools and high schools because really these
11 students are beginning these pathways in middle school so
12 there is a way to send that information down.
13 MS. BOSAK: Yes. And I think you’ve done some
14 work on this.
15 MR. LEGGE: Diane mentioned some of our products
16 earlier. We do a publication called a Career Guide, which
17 is geared towards high school students that outlines labor
18 market information, career information, job opportunities
19 in various occupations.
20 You mentioned the middle schools. We actually
21 have developed career trading cards that w e ’re going to be
22 making available soon. They’re basically baseball card-
23 type things that show careers and different wages and
24 occupations. And last week actually a couple of us were
25 talking to career and technical administrators, community 24
1 colleges, Lehigh Carbon Community College, so we de events
2 like that where we go out and discuss our information,
3 occupations that are growing, occupations that are in
4 demand. We present at least once, sometimes twice a year
5 PACTA does statewide conferences with career and technical
6 administrators.
7 So we are doing our best to get the information
8 out on careers and job openings and the type of education
9 needed to move into various careers. So we do that on a
10 regular basis and w e ’re always available to talk to
11 schools. We've been to many high schools over the years
12 talking about career and technical education, job
13 opportunities and things like that.
14 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Thank you very
15 much.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
17 Chairman Saylor.
18 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Madam Secretary, I
19 appreciate some of the things you guys are doing with
20 reaching out to the schools. I think that one of the
21 things I liked about -- you mentioned South Carolina -- was
22 the fact that actually students and parents can go online
23 and interact with sites that talk about what you need to be
24 taking in high school, what classes to take, what are the
25 opportunities out there, actually talk to whatever person 25
1 in a particular career that you may be going.
2 I think one of the things that we have a problem
3 with in career and technical schools today is people still
4 have the old image of what manufacturing is, for instance.
5 They have the old image of, well, you're not successful
6 unless you get a four-year degree. And if you go to a
7 trade school or a technical school or a votech school,
8 you're a dummy or you're a troublemaker. And I think we
9 have to do a better job where I think South Carolina has
10 done a fantastic job in reaching out to parents and
11 students to make them understand there are some very, very
12 good careers, financially rewarding careers with benefits
13 and 401(k)s and healthcare that is available.
14 And I don't think we in Pennsylvania have moved
15 that direction. I think we're still living in the dark
16 ages. And somebody who's getting closer to retirement age,
17 I want to make sure we're keeping our students here because
18 somebody's got to pay the bills for when I go to that
19 nursing home.
20 So, Madam Secretary, I would ask you to take a
21 look at some of the things some of the other States have
22 done in creation of educating parents because I think
23 that's a big thing. Parents love to push kids off to four-
24 year colleges but we're also seeing the reports and I think
25 the Governor has talked about a huge debt that our students 26
1 are coming out of colleges with and then have no job. From
2 the point of our colleges in Pennsylvania, you’re training
3 10,000 teachers for 1,500 jobs. You come out of debt and
4 you’re one of those 8,500 people who are coming out of
5 college and not getting a job and teaching, paying that
6 debt is very difficult.
7 So I would ask you to take a look at where we can
8 -- and maybe you have some ideas already and I welcome if
9 you do -- how we can reach out better to parents and
10 teachers to make them aware of today’s world. Like I said,
11 I think we in Pennsylvania are still set in the old ages of
12 what it is.
13 So when I looked at South Carolina and their
14 interaction, I thought it was great because you could go
15 online and talk to somebody in a career whether it was a
16 car tech or auto mechanic or something and find out what
17 the opportunity is like, what it’s like, what you need to
18 do as a student, and exactly how much you make because I
19 know when I go to career days, I always have one student
20 that says, well, I want to make a million dollars. And I
21 repeat that a lot because it goes to the point that how do
22 we convince students today that there is a better life
23 ahead of them by picking career and technical schools?
24 Have you had an opportunity -- I know you’re fairly new but
25 have you looked at anything like that? 27
1 MS. BOSAK: Well, certainly. I mean we look at
2 other States and what they are doing. W e ’re looking right
3 now at how we can improve the information we share on our
4 website and on the CWIA website to make it more user-
5 friendly. I think we need to do better at also
6 highlighting what are some things that are happening out
7 there right now that are exciting like the BotsIQ
8 competition and the kind of energy and how employers are
9 engaged in that and what that means. There are several
10 other examples I highlighted in my testimony.
11 So I think that there are pockets of things that
12 are happening that could help us if we could share that
13 information with more parents and more students to make
14 them aware.
15 I think the other thing, too, is how do we do a
16 better job of also connecting with employers, employers who
17 may be sort of on the cutting edge of new industry and are
18 looking to expand or take what they’re doing a little bit
19 further but they need the skilled workforce. And so can we
20 find better ways to connect them to CTCs and community
21 colleges and the universities so that we can make that
22 happen and get them a skilled workforce so that they can
23 expand.
24 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Well, and I remember
25 somebody mentioning to me -- and I can’t recall -- maybe 28
1 some group in the western part of the State who actually
2 did have a video up and running you could look up careers
3 and actually interact with individuals in that career, and
4 I can’t remember who it was, but I thought it was fantastic
5 because that’s what people need. Reading on the computer
6 this or that is not always -- it’s great to be able to
7 interact in some way or shape or form with individuals.
8 But I thank you for your testimony today, and
9 that’s it, Mr. Chairman.
10 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
11 Also joined by Representative Mike Tobash from
12 Schuylkill County.
13 I think that’s it for questions from panel
14 members. What might be helpful to the Committee is provide
15 some kind of chart showing how labor and industry, who you
16 connect with as far as career and technical education, as
17 well as maybe through other departments like your
18 interaction with PDE, what data do you share, how it flows
19 out. I think that would be helpful to the Committee to
20 just get almost a picture framework of how this is done in
21 the Commonwealth.
22 MS. BOSAK: Okay, great. We could do that.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Will do. Thank you.
24 MS. BOSAK: Thank you.
25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Go ahead. 29
1 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Interesting testimony.
2 And I appreciate you being here this morning.
3 And just to dovetail on what the Chairman of the
4 Education Committee just said, I think he’s spot on where
5 he talks about this disconnect between I think our
6 education system, our CTCs, and our workforce development
7 organizations and really businesses in the Commonwealth.
8 So in the last session we were fortunate enough
9 to get a bill passed into law. It’s Act 168. It’s the
10 Business-Education Partnership. And w e ’re piloting in
11 Schuylkill County right now so w e ’ve got a number of
12 manufacturers that are on board and allowing educators to
13 get continuing education credits by coming into those
14 manufacturing facilities and see just exactly what
15 Representative Saylor is talking about, the job
16 opportunities that are available.
17 You know, the thing that is so disappointing to
18 me, and I continue to see it, I was just at a job fair over
19 the weekend and there were a number of employers. One of
20 the employers is looking for employees; they said they were
21 looking for 100 employees. And I don’t think 100 potential
22 employees showed up at the job fair.
23 In Schuylkill County w e ’ve got about 60 percent
24 of the job opportunities are vocational jobs and we have
25 difficulty getting 15 percent of our students to go into 30
1 the technical career field.
2 So the act that we had passed, 168, allows
3 teachers to go in to these manufacturing facilities and
4 understand that manufacturing is different than it was
5 before, that we've got great career opportunities, that
6 we've got excellent benefits. And it's not only working on
7 the floor. You've got marketing positions, you've got
8 advertising positions, you've got accounting positions,
9 you've got engineering positions.
10 So as we continue to try and connect this, we
11 look forward to working with your department to roll this
12 out statewide, so I think really building awareness within
13 our educational system between our CTCs, our K through 12
14 school districts, our higher ed system, and realizing that
15 we've got so many job opportunities in the Commonwealth
16 that are just going unfilled because I think the lack of
17 coordination. So our office looks forward to working with
18 yours, and we want to really make this the best playing
19 field for great careers that we possibly can.
20 MS. BOSAK: And we agree and we're open to
21 working with all of you.
22 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Great. Thank you.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you. I guess
24 that's a great transition to our next testifier, Lee
25 Burket, Director, Pennsylvania Department of Education, 31
1 Bureau of Career and Technical Education.
2 Thank you so much for coming and feel free to
3 start when you’re ready.
4 DR. BURKET: Chairman Grove, Chairman Harkins,
5 and Members of the Select Subcommittee on Technical
6 Education and Career Readiness. My name is Lee Burket and
7 I am the Director of the Bureau of Career and Technical
8 Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
9 Thank you for giving me the opportunity to submit
10 comments regarding career and technical education in
11 Pennsylvania.
12 Currently, the Pennsylvania Department of
13 Education, through the Bureau of Career and Technical
14 Education, supports the following entities through
15 regulation, policy, and funding. The Department works with
16 135 high schools that hold Department approval for career
17 and technical education, or CTE, and of the 135 high
18 schools, 15 hold approval of eight or more CTE programs.
19 The CTE programs are classified by instructional title and
20 assigned a number called a CIP code, or Classification of
21 Instructional Program. The classification system is a
22 national certification standard.
23 High schools enroll 14,994 students in grades 9
24 through 12 in their CTE programs. Career and technical
25 centers, or CTCs, are joint schools consisting of school 32
1 districts within an approved area of vocational technical
2 school attendance area that agree to offer their students
3 career and technical education at a common location or
4 campus.
5 As a member of a CTC, each member school district
6 has representation on the Joint Operating Committee, or the
7 JOC. The JOC performs the same duties as a school board,
8 which includes approving the CTC budget. Member school
9 districts fund the operation of the CTC, as determined by
10 the Articles of Agreement.
11 There are 86 CTCs in Pennsylvania, which include
12 each of the campuses associated with a CTC. For example,
13 Chester County CTC has three campuses.
14 The JOC decides on what type of CTC to operate,
15 either a comprehensive CTC or an occupational CTC.
16 Comprehensive CTCs offer students both academic courses and
17 technical programs, and occupational CTCs offer only
18 technical programs and students receive their academic
19 coursework at their school district of residence.
20 There are 13 comprehensive CTCs and 60
21 occupational CTCs. CTCs enroll 50,569 students in their
22 CTE programs, and in 2014, Pennsylvania's total student
23 enrollment in CTE was 65,563 students in grades 9 through
24 12. This is approximately 12 percent of the State total
25 enrollment of 550,758 students in grades 9 through 12. 33
1 The Department, through the Bureau of Career and
2 Technical Education, works with 34 postsecondary
3 institutions which receive the Federal Carl D. Perkins
4 Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006
5 funds. And the 34 institutions include different types of
6 institutions and I ’ll move from that.
7 The Department, through the Bureau of Career and
8 Technical Education, works with 74 entities which receive
9 State funds to reimburse them for the operation of adult
10 technical training to meet the immediate needs of
11 employers.
12 Currently, Pennsylvania receives $40 million
13 related to the Federal Carl D. Perkins Act. The funds are
14 distributed to secondary and postsecondary recipients
15 through a formula. Recipients must use the funds to
16 improve academic and technical skills of students through
17 the integration of academic standards with technical
18 content, and the recipients must provide a program of
19 study.
20 The Federal funds support 97 secondary schools
21 and the 34 postsecondary entities. There are nine mandated
22 uses of funds and 20 permissible uses of funds. Both State
23 and Federal regulations require that secondary CTE and
24 postsecondary CTE align programs and establish Articulation
25 Agreements. Alignment between the secondary CTE and 34
1 postsecondary CTE establishes a pathway for students to
2 earn college credit for the secondary technical coursework.
3 The Department developed a program of study in
4 the statewide Articulation Agreement that ensures students
5 have the opportunity to earn at minimum nine college
6 credits for the secondary technical coursework. The
7 original development of the program of study involves
8 secondary instructors, postsecondary faculty and
9 business/industry representatives.
10 The Department is also working with school
11 districts and career and technical centers to develop
12 career pathways. The Department helps local partnership
13 teams learn about pathways concept and do initial planning
14 toward creating those pathway partnerships.
15 Locally, secondary and postsecondary CTE has
16 taken further the program of study developed by the State
17 and established pathways that begin in secondary school and
18 culminate with a four-year bachelor’s degree. Through
19 these pathways, CTE students are able to earn a
20 postsecondary credential, a certificate, or a degree.
21 Successful models of the K to 16 pathway that lead to
22 postsecondary credentials have been established at Lehigh
23 Career and Technical Institute in Lehigh County, Delaware
24 County Community College, and the Community College of
25 Allegheny County. 35
1 Secondary schools provide students with career
2 information and career counseling services for students K
3 through 12. The Department developed a guide and provides
4 technical assistance for schools in intermediate units to
5 use to develop their career counseling programs. Locally,
6 schools providing counseling services are assisting
7 students in selecting a career goal and developing an
8 educational plan that helps students to pursue their career
9 goals after high school. A model of a career counseling
10 plan is at Erie City School District.
11 Secondary and postsecondary CTEs engage business
12 in the development and offering of the CTE program. The
13 Department has developed a number of resources to assist
14 secondary CTE programs and administrators to engage the
15 business community with the educational program and system.
16 Working with secondary schools, postsecondary institutions,
17 and the workforce investment boards, the Department
18 developed resources that provide guidance to assist in
19 establishing and sustaining business and industry
20 partnerships.
21 Opportunities for partnership engagement include
22 addressing community needs, staff development, curriculum
23 assistance, student technical competitions, testing and
24 graduation, assistance with education and career planning,
25 work experience, donation, student recognition, and public 36
1 relations. A model of building and sustaining business and
2 industry partnerships is at Lenape Career and Technical
3 Center in Armstrong County.
4 Secondary CTE aligns to industry standards and
5 provides opportunity for students to earn industry
6 credentials. The Department has developed programs of
7 study that outline the technical content students should
8 learn while enrolled in secondary CTE.
9 The technical content is aligned to national and
10 State industry standards, where such standards exist. This
11 alignment to available industry standards and focus by
12 secondary CTE programs on providing students with the
13 opportunity to earn industry credentials has enabled 36
14 percent of high school seniors enrolled in CTE to earn
15 industry certifications in the 2013/14 school year. Not
16 all of the industry certifications earned are program-
17 specific and do not necessarily lead to increased
18 employability.
19 The Department has worked collaboratively with
20 the Pennsylvania Association of Career and Technical
21 Administrators, Pennsylvania Association of School
22 Administrators, Pennsylvania School Boards Association, and
23 the Pennsylvania State Education Association in developing
24 a number of CTE resources. The Department also worked
25 collaboratively with the Pennsylvania Departments of 37
1 Agriculture and Labor and Industry and the State Workforce
2 Investment Board.
3 These collaborations, along with a commitment of
4 the Department, enable it to provide technical assistance
5 and resources that support the local entities as they
6 strive toward providing CTE and career opportunities to
7 increased numbers of students. The result is an increased
8 number of students enrolling in CTE and increased numbers
9 of students existing high school with industry-recognized
10 skill credentials and Pennsylvania skills certificates and
11 college credits in careers where employment is available.
12 We do have a number of recommendations. Pathways
13 exist for students enrolled in CTE, but the opportunity for
14 all students to enroll in CTE is limited. Governor Wolf's
15 proposed budget takes the first step in ensuring CTE
16 students have access to the tools and resources to be
17 successful in the 21st century economy.
18 Currently, there are only a few pathways that
19 connect in associate's degree to a four-year baccalaureate
20 degree. Additional alignment of associate degree to four-
21 year baccalaureate degree programs would benefit students.
22 This would entail establishing a structure for
23 postsecondary programs to meet with secondary CTE providers
24 to determine alignment and develop pathways. Models exist
25 at Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, Berks CTC and 38
1 Reading-Muhlenberg CTC. The CTCs have worked with their
2 community colleges and Bloomsburg University to provide
3 students with a pathway with exit points at each level
4 while providing students the opportunity to earn a
5 baccalaureate degree if they pursue the full pathway.
6 The data show that 89 percent of students
7 enrolled in career and technical centers are proficient or
8 advanced on the 12th grade technical assessment. School
9 districts and single-district CTCs, however, have not
10 demonstrated this level of achievement for students
11 enrolled in their CTE programs. It is recommended that
12 additional assistance be provided to school districts and
13 single-district CTCs to increase the technical achievement
14 levels of students enrolled in their CTE programs. It is
15 recommended that all approved secondary CTE programs
16 provide the opportunity for their students to earn program
17 industry-related certifications that lead to increased
18 employability.
19 And even though secondary and postsecondary CTE
20 programs engage business and industry, stronger engagement
21 between employers and CTE programs would help ensure that
22 local and regional technical skills gaps can be closed.
23 Approved program evaluations often cite the lack of
24 meaningful engagement of business to guide program
25 direction and to guide the school’s decisions regarding 39
1 programs that contribute to the workforce needs of the
2 community.
3 Alignment of academic courses to each career
4 pathway should be strengthened to ensure that students
5 enrolling in CTE programs are at grade level and ready to
6 pursue their careers. Students are being withheld from CTE
7 programs due to the need for remedial education. Students
8 who do not pass the Keystone exam are required to drop
9 elective courses such as CTE in order to schedule the
10 required remediation. CTE should be a requirement rather
11 than an elective to avoid this conflict with Keystone
12 remediation.
13 Governor Wolf’s 2015/16 proposed budget invests
14 in career and technical education in three targeted ways.
15 The proposal includes $15 million for grants to be awarded
16 on a competitive basis to support the establishment of
17 career and technical programs that prepare students for
18 success in the high-skill economy, which will address many
19 of the recommendations listed above.
20 Area career and technical schools and school
21 districts with eight or more approved programs will be
22 eligible to receive grants, and these grants are intended
23 to fund programs that include local employers or labor
24 unions, Workforce Investment Boards, and institutions of
25 higher education as partners, provide work-based learning 40
1 opportunities for students, and provide the opportunity for
2 students to earn college credit or industry-recognized
3 certification. This initiative will help create more
4 pathways for students to earn industry-recognized
5 credentials and enter training programs of both two- and
6 four-year higher education institutions.
7 Additionally, the proposal includes $8 million in
8 grants to be distributed on a competitive basis to school
9 districts and career and technical schools to offer college
10 and career counseling in middle and high schools. This
11 will help schools and programs develop pathways for
12 students to pursue high-skill careers.
13 Lastly, the Governor has proposed a $5 million
14 investment to help area career and technical schools and
15 school districts to purchase equipment that meets industry
16 standards for the purpose of training students. Attached
17 to my testimony is data illustrating student enrollment,
18 performance, and certification.
19 Again, I thank you for the opportunity to provide
20 this public comment and see if you have any questions.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much.
22 I recently attended a roundtable discussion on
23 career and technical education, where it stands
24 specifically for York County, a lot of stakeholders at the
25 table, and one thing hit me pretty hard. We have a small 41
1 business called Harley-Davidson. They make motorcycles. I
2 don't know if you've heard of them. They're pretty cool
3 and it's a pretty cool company. It's something that most
4 high school students would say, man, I want to work at
5 Harley someday. They asked one of our local
6 superintendents, do you still have work release? So here
7 we have a Fortune 500 company in York County asking do you
8 still have work release and can we get some students?
9 Now, obviously there's probably a hang-up with
10 work release heading into a manufacturing setting. Some
11 businesses have some liability issues depending on what
12 they're doing and stuff like that. But are we seeing kind
13 of like a communication breakdown? Because that worried me
14 a little bit, just that one single question of locally. At
15 the State level we have all this interaction and
16 connection. It goes to the local WIB and then down to
17 school districts and then what happens? Are we actually
18 garnering the connections we need to connect those kids
19 with those jobs where businesses are looking to maybe bring
20 kids in for work release and getting that next generation
21 of employees?
22 DR. BURKET: So work-based learning or
23 cooperative education, that does exist and I know it exists
24 at York County CTC. Typically, the State is not in the
25 minute details of connecting one employer to a given 42
1 educational program. So is there a communication
2 breakdown? There could be. I ’d have to explore that
3 further, though.
4 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Yes. And that’s
5 probably why I previously asked the Department of Labor for
6 almost like a flow sheet of how the State interacts locally
7 and back and forth between State Government agencies to see
8 if through almost the system we built and have in place
9 over a number of years, there may be breakdowns in
10 communication. And just that comment someone from Harley-
11 Davidson made just triggered that thought in my head that
12 are we utilizing the system that we have created in the
13 most effective, efficient way or did we lose that at some
14 point over the years it’s been established?
15 DR. BURKET: And that is a good question. So if
16 they were making that comment with a school district,
17 again, the school district in York does not have approved
18 career and technical education programs, so the reference
19 to work release -- and I ’m sure outside of this room
20 probably no one understands it but me and a couple of
21 people at PDE. So work release is actually when a student
22 has completed his or her academic graduation requirements
23 and they can be released from school to go to work. It’s
24 not part of the educational program. I guess I would need
25 further detail and have a conversation. 43
1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Yes, absolutely.
2 Appreciate that.
3 Representative Harkins.
4 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Two questions, and
5 just to kind of extend on that, when I was in high school
6 in the technical trades, it was morning for academics and
7 afternoon for trade, and then your senior year you went out
8 on co-op in the afternoon. I don’t know if that still is
9 in effect.
10 But there is a disconnect with the employers. I
11 feel that a lot of them in my district -- I have the GE
12 locomotive plant -- a lot of them don’t understand or don’t
13 have the wherewithal with some of the programs that are out
14 there. I know w e ’re always looking for electricians and
15 welders. That just seems to be something that’s always on
16 the front burner.
17 But also the remedial ed that you had discussed,
18 how do we overcome that? I have twin sons that are 21
19 years old. They went to Cathedral Prep. One is a junior
20 at Cornell doing very well; the other one is trying to find
21 himself after a year of college but he’s now at a point
22 where he wants to look at this or that, has the aptitude
23 but doesn’t know which direction to go, kind of got thrown
24 back into the trades in that regard.
25 But it just seems like we had a good program 44
1 going in Erie through the '70s and the '80s. It was
2 dissolved when, as somebody said, our parents wanted kids
3 to go to academic college. And I think nationwide we
4 encountered that. Now, everybody is realizing we need
5 plumbers, we need carpenters, electricians, welders. We
6 just don't know how we get back to that, how to make it a
7 cool profession again.
8 DR. BURKET: So your question started off at the
9 Keystone remediation, and that is a very difficult
10 situation because, as I talk with parents, with
11 administrators of the career and technical centers,
12 superintendents of the school districts, the school
13 districts are extremely limited in terms of when they
14 believe that they can schedule that remediation. They
15 believe they need to schedule that during the school day.
16 We talk about offering it during weekends, evening, early
17 morning so that the students are not pulled from the career
18 and technical education programs.
19 But then it's convincing parents and parents were
20 mentioned during Deputy Secretary Bosak's testimony.
21 Convincing parents that it's important to have that child
22 take the remediation during the summer or morning, evening
23 is difficult as well because everyone wants the student to
24 graduate.
25 Right now what we've done, we've engaged the CTC 45
1 community in conversation about flexible scheduling, and
2 many of the programs are still half-day, but there are a
3 few examples where -- Butler County actually does this.
4 They have a session in between the morning and the p.m.
5 sessions.
6 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: I ’ve seen that,
7 yes.
8 DR. BURKET: Lehigh CTI, they have a program
9 where students come in for I think it’s 90 minutes and then
10 the students go back. So it’s working right now. I think
11 I need to continue working with both the academic and CTE
12 community to figure out what are some best practices.
13 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Even on the GE
14 front what’s interesting is you repair locomotives or you
15 program them. Now, they’re getting into having to teach
16 languages because many of the products are going overseas
17 so far that you have somebody that knows how to program but
18 doesn’t know how to relay that information to the
19 purchaser.
20 DR. BURKET: So the difficulty between GE and the
21 schools, is it business tries to connect with the schools
22 and the schools aren’t communicating or -
23 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: I don’t think that
24 they’re aware of the opportunities that exist there -
25 DR. BURKET: Okay. So it’s — 46
1 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: — and I think that
2 it’s just a great program; it just hasn’t been sold or
3 marketed as effectively as it could.
4 DR. BURKET: Okay.
5 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Two great entities
6 just need to be brought together.
7 DR. BURKET: Yes, okay
8 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: Thank you.
9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
10 Chairman Saylor.
11 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: I guess the question I
12 have and I ’m hearing a lot, several things is whether our
13 Workforce Investment Boards are doing their job. I think
14 that’s a question we need to answer. With the money w e ’re
15 spending, I think we get about $1.7 million in job
16 training. A lot of people are suggesting that a lot of
17 that money’s being eaten up in overhead and that is a
18 question. When you’re spending $1.7 million -- I have
19 people that walk into my office that have looked for job
20 training, they’re out of a job and can’t find job training
21 money available to help them, and I don’t know why. To me,
22 if you’re out of a job, there should be some program out
23 there to help you.
24 So I ask you to take a look at the Workforce
25 Investment Boards, whether w e ’re holding them to a certain 47
1 standard, how much are we spending, is there a better way
2 that States have done to do this?
3 The other thing I did mention to the Governor
4 when I had an opportunity and I would ask both of you to
5 take back to your Secretaries is I think the Governor
6 should ask President Obama to create a pilot program in
7 Pennsylvania where all Federal mandates on job training
8 dollars coming into Pennsylvania are given to the Governor
9 to allow him to design a program that is to Pennsylvania’s
10 needs. I think it’s a great pilot program.
11 You have a Democratic President, a Democratic
12 Governor. It’s an opportunity for us as Pennsylvania to
13 demonstrate that left to our own design for customizing
14 those dollars to Pennsylvania that we can do a better job
15 than what the Federal mandates have, again, based upon
16 people walking into my office saying there’s no money for
17 what I want to do or training and I don’t know why people
18 don’t fit in. So I think having Governor Wolf and his
19 Secretaries design programs that work for Pennsylvania
20 would go a long way to helping us in this field.
21 And I think Representative Harkins mentioned
22 about plumbers and electricians, and when you think about
23 somebody coming out of Thaddeus Stevens in Lancaster as a
24 welder making $75,000 to start, I think most kids coming
25 out of a four-year degree would like to have that same job 48
1 or at least that kind of money I should say.
2 So I just think it would be important. I think
3 that we in the State here in Pennsylvania -- it's probably
4 true in every State -- could do a better job of directing
5 the dollars where they need to go because trying to
6 micromanage job training dollars for Washington just is not
7 the best way to go. And I think it's an opportunity for
8 Governor Wolf to tailor these programs to fit jobs that are
9 really here in Pennsylvania. So I'll stop at that.
10 DR. BURKET: Okay. So in terms of the Workforce
11 Investment Board, the Department of Education has
12 regulation that requires the secondary entities to work
13 with the Workforce Investment Boards. I can't attest to
14 every WIB. I have been to the Lehigh Valley WIB numerous
15 times and there really is a great connection between that
16 Workforce Investment Board and the educational entities,
17 not just the CTE community but also each of the school
18 districts.
19 I know there was a question about careers and
20 guidance counselors. The Workforce Investment Board in
21 Lehigh actually has two career coaches, and those
22 individuals are very much loved by the students. They go
23 into the school districts and they're actually helping
24 those students to make career choices based on their
25 interest and so forth. So there are some good models out 49
1 there. Unfortunately, I don’t travel that often to the WIB
2 so I can only speak to that one.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative
4 Longietti.
5 REPRESENTATIVE LONGIETTI: Thank you for your
6 very important testimony.
7 It’s been touched on earlier that it seems like
8 there is a need to increase the level of standing of career
9 and technical education centers. And to give you an
10 example, we were in Representative Harkins’ district with a
11 Democratic Policy Committee and something that struck me
12 was his Economic Development Director testified about what
13 they called a master’s in manufacturing, not necessarily a
14 real master’s but that was the title of their program where
15 they’re bringing in students postsecondary to the CTE to
16 get a master’s in manufacturing which is aligned to the job
17 needs in the area.
18 And one of the ancillary benefits that I saw of
19 that is that is raises the standing of the career and
20 technical education center because I know when I was in
21 high school and I talk to folks today and it seems like
22 it’s a continuing problem -- it was mentioned earlier -
23 that the standing is this is not a place for people to come
24 and succeed. This is a place for folks who can’t make it
25 elsewhere. By bringing in postsecondary students and 50
1 having a program called master's in manufacturing, I think
2 that raises the standing and it takes away the stigma. And
3 that's just one example. But I think there's got to be
4 some kind of a marketing effort to raise the standing of
5 these centers.
6 And that's really not a question but a comment,
7 but I'm so pleased to see in your testimony and you just
8 talked about it the problem of students being withheld from
9 CTE programs due to the need for remedial education. I
10 heard the same thing recently from a superintendent and
11 some school directors, very frustrated that we've made this
12 system into a system that seems to presuppose that
13 everybody's going to a four-year college. It was a great
14 fit for me and a number of folks but it's not a great fit
15 for other students. And then we hear the labor and
16 industry folks talk about the significant percentage of
17 need. So whatever you can do to advance that effort I
18 think is critical.
19 And also, I know this isn't a hearing about the
20 Keystone exams, but to provide feedback to your colleagues
21 in the Department that here, unfortunately, is a bad
22 unintended consequence of all of this, that now we're
23 pulling kids out of career and technical ed.
24 I do have one question, and that is -- if you
25 want to react to any of that, that's fine -- you mentioned 51
1 a number of models in different areas, which is so
2 important. I guess the question is how do we get that
3 information out to folks in the field to say, hey, here’s a
4 good model that you might want to take a look at? How do
5 we connect those up? So in my area maybe they’re not using
6 that model and it could benefit from it. What are your
7 thoughts on that?
8 DR. BURKET: So that’s a good question. Before I
9 get there, though, let me go back to increased level of
10 standing. You have a lot of data attached to my testimony,
11 and I want to say I ’m very proud of the CTE community for
12 the changes that they have engaged in over the past few
13 years. And hopefully when they’re up here testifying, they
14 can address how they are changing at the local level the
15 standing of the CTCs within that community. There has been
16 a lot of change going on.
17 In regard to the models, again, with our
18 partnerships, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association
19 had a publication solely on career and technical education.
20 That was very well-received and that helped to relay the
21 best practices in a number of areas to all school districts
22 across the State. Working closely with PACTA, the
23 Pennsylvania Association for Career and Technical
24 Administrators, they have two conferences and a number of
25 workshops throughout the year where they bring in the 52
1 individuals who of course are doing great things at their
2 schools.
3 At the State level we work with a consultant to
4 actually gather these best practices and to develop
5 booklets, guidelines that we place on our website. And of
6 course we go out with PennLink and say here are these
7 resources; you may find them to be of use. Those are some
8 ways that w e ’re doing that.
9 We’re working with York, the Harrisburg Area
10 Community College. I think it’s called TechLink. I know
11 we support that. And again, maybe York can highlight some
12 of the things that are happening there with that.
13 REPRESENTATIVE LONGIETTI: Last question,
14 Chairman Roebuck often mentions this and I don’t know if
15 you can shed any light, but he talks about when he was in
16 middle school -- it was a similar model when I was middle
17 school -- you got exposed to lots of different things. You
18 had metal shop, you had wood shop, you had drafting. You
19 had all these career exposures. I hated all those but some
20 kids really enjoy those and found this is where my aptitude
21 and interest is. Do you know if that’s happening much
22 anymore?
23 DR. BURKET: So in the middle school actually
24 again Chapter 4 of the State Board of Education’s
25 regulation requires that family consumer science and 53
1 technology education is offered at each of the districts,
2 and it can be offered either as a standalone course or it
3 can be integrated. What we have found over the past number
4 of years is that a number of districts have laid off the
5 family consumer science instructors and the technology
6 education instructors and integrated that content into
7 other courses.
8 I don’t know the extent of that because that’s in
9 a different area. I just have seen email conversations
10 where they’re fighting to retain the technology ed and
11 family consumer science programs as standalone programs.
12 So I would say that’s somewhat decreasing.
13 REPRESENTATIVE LONGIETTI: Thank you very much.
14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you,
15 Representative.
16 Representative Tobash:
17 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Thank you. And I ’ll
18 reiterate, it’s not a hearing on Keystone Exams but that
19 question comes up, you’ve got a small section in your
20 testimony on the fact that w e ’re realizing some impediment
21 to getting students into CTCs as a result of our
22 standardized testing model that w e ’ve got right now. So
23 w e ’ve got a bill in this Committee that’s working on that,
24 the Education Committee, and I think it’s important work,
25 and I ’m happy to hear that you’re interested in looking at 54
1 best practices within our school districts to make sure the
2 remediation is proper, but I ’m not so sure that we don’t
3 have to change the regulation, the rules to make sure that
4 we don’t continue to have it as an impediment.
5 Representative Longietti mentioned the fact that
6 he didn’t like metal and wood shop. I got to tell you, I
7 liked wood shop. I was just at my mother’s home over the
8 weekend and she’s got a bench that I made in wood shop. I
9 was happy to see that she still had the bench. I know that
10 she doesn’t have the grades from my biology Keystone exam
11 there.
12 But we are working on this and I think it’s
13 really important because so many of the things that we talk
14 about here gets us back to this point that our standardized
15 testing model I think is not taking many students in the
16 right direction. In fact, I visited a school board meeting
17 the other evening and there were a number of parents that
18 got up and they spoke and they were talking about their
19 desire to have their ninth grade students able to enter our
20 CTC in Schuylkill County, which that school district
21 currently did not allow ninth graders to go into the school
22 but they wanted them there. And the chief complaint from
23 the superintendent was Keystone exams and Keystone exam
24 remediation.
25 So it is a problem and it’s certainly not putting 55
1 us, our employers in the Commonwealth in a position that
2 they need to be in, and that's filling positions for a
3 workforce that is aging with a strong need for technical
4 proficiency, and we look forward again to working with your
5 department. We've had many conversations right now with
6 the Secretary and I think that we need to get the law and
7 the regulation right so that you can do the work that you
8 need to get done to make sure that it's not an impediment
9 to a great career path.
10 So thank you.
11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Do you want to respond
12 to that at all?
13 DR. BURKET: No. That was good.
14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative Lewis.
15 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: I am concerned. We have
16 one of the larger votech schools in Chester County -- I'm
17 from Chester County -- the Chester County Intermediate Unit
18 #24, and their program is thriving. My concern is the cost
19 to the local school districts when they extract students
20 from the local school districts to attend the vocational
21 technical school and if there's a possibility of any
22 financial relief to those districts, cost-per-student that
23 does attend the technical school, and also the time
24 allotted to each school because they do extract from maybe
25 five or six different high schools on an average of about 56
1 three hours per day because there's a transportation issue,
2 and also core subject and academia when they go back to the
3 schools that they can't get at the technical school.
4 Is there any possible adjustment financially to
5 the strapped school districts with the educational funding
6 and do you propose to help alleviate that or is that in the
7 future to get some of these students there? Because now
8 they're only selecting students' GPA, and, as
9 Representative Tobash mentioned, the Keystone exams, we
10 hear them all over the place, that they are interfering.
11 DR. BURKET: Okay.
12 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Thank you.
13 DR. BURKET: All right. So the tuition costs,
14 the tuition is determined by each of the school districts.
15 And I know PACTA and the directors of the CTCs will be
16 coming forward. They understand, again, the details better
17 than I do of how that tuition is determined.
18 The Department of course sits on the Basic
19 Education Funding Commission and I know they are examining
20 how that formula is going to be calculated so I think there
21 will be something -- I know that's part of that discussion,
22 funding of career and technical education. So I'm assuming
23 that something in the future will be happening with that.
24 In regard to the time allotted to each school, so
25 there is a regulation that does require that career and 57
1 technical education meet given technical instructional
2 hours. For example, a three-year program is 1,080
3 technical instructional hours. How a school delivers that
4 over that three-year period is up to that school, so there
5 would be some flexibility.
6 The program at Chester, without looking at the
7 detail, three-hour day, I mean they may be able to cut back
8 on that and still meet the instructional hour requirement
9 but I would have to look at that in more detail and talk
10 with that director.
11 And then in regard to the transportation cost,
12 again, I can’t address the details of that. I ’m not sure
13 how that works or how it’s reimbursed, the transportation.
14 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Thank you.
15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
16 And I believe that is it on questions. Thank you
17 very much for your testimony.
18 Next up, we have Department of Agriculture,
19 Hannah Smith-Brubaker, Deputy Secretary for Market
20 Development.
21 I would also like to recognize two FFA students
22 in the crowd. Why don’t you stand up and say hi. Welcome.
23 What are your names?
24 MR. RICE: I ’m Tony Rice from the Midwest High
25 School. 58
1 MS. MARATAY: Sonata Maratay [ph] from the Athens
2 Area High School.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Welcome. We appreciate
4 you coming out today.
5 Feel free to start.
6 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Thank you.
7 Good morning, Chairmen Grove and Harkins,
8 Chairman Saylor, distinguished Members of the Select
9 Subcommittee.
10 I come before you today not only as Deputy
11 Secretary of Agriculture with the Department but as a
12 farmer. When I go home at night, it’s to our farm. We
13 have an organic produce and pasture poultry farm in a rural
14 community that markets to urban restaurants. Every year,
15 we employ up to 10 young people who are coming to us
16 anywhere from being a high school student to master’s
17 level, and of course preparing our own children for a
18 technology-based future. So thank you very much for this
19 opportunity and thank you for allowing agriculture to have
20 a place at the table in this discussion.
21 The Department of Agriculture looks forward to
22 playing an integral role as you continue to explore
23 existing and needed science, technology, engineering, and
24 mathematics components of the educational curriculum,
25 vocational technical programs, and career pathways to meet 59
1 the needs of employers and workers now and in the future.
2 We are the agency of State Government that serves
3 Pennsylvania 58,000 farm families, the industry of
4 agriculture, which is a leading economic enterprise for our
5 Commonwealth, and the 12.7 million citizens who count on us
6 to grow their food. That food is produced with safety in
7 mind from the Department’s perspective. That’s a very
8 important piece in this discussion.
9 And USDA estimates that production agriculture
10 and agribusiness in Pennsylvania contributes nearly $75
11 billion to the Pennsylvania economy. Add to that one of
12 our largest industries, hardwoods and forest products, the
13 equine industry in its totality, and the food processing
14 industry, and the value of that agriculture quickly rises
15 far beyond $75 billion.
16 The agriculture and food industry is a business
17 which needs both financial and human capital. Over many
18 years, we and our industry partners have done a great job
19 in securing and investing financial capital to build an
20 agriculture and food infrastructure that is a hub of
21 economic activity not only in Pennsylvania but also in the
22 mid-Atlantic region.
23 The Commonwealth has made significant public
24 investments in agriculture such as the preservation of over
25 500,000 acres of farmland. The private sector invests in 60
1 the business agriculture and food in Pennsylvania because
2 of its rich tradition, its wealth of knowledge, its
3 accessibility to markets, and its skilled and able
4 workforce. The result is a multibillion-dollar enterprise
5 that is a major economic driver for our Commonwealth, in
6 addition to our State being a leading international
7 exporter of products and services.
8 To remain competitive in the global marketplace,
9 the agriculture and food industry in Pennsylvania must
10 address a number of human capital issues that threaten to
11 become economic develop issues if not resolved. Without a
12 doubt, companies that cannot resolve these issues relating
13 to a substantial talent pipeline here will move production
14 facilities to other areas around the country, and frankly,
15 around the world that can supply skilled workers.
16 In light of demographic and technology trends
17 that will impact the U.S. workforce in the next 10 to 20
18 years, particularly as the baby boom generation changes its
19 relationship to work and the constant changes in
20 technology, the human capital pipeline in all industries
21 will be severely impacted. Companies will not only run out
22 of skilled people to operate technology, but there will be
23 a general labor shortage of workers needed to complete
24 basic tasks. And I ’m sure you’re hearing this across all
25 industries. 61
1 There is and will be a critical shortage of
2 workers and skills in agriculture. Many companies tell us
3 that they anticipate losing 40 to 50 percent of their
4 supervisory-level employees and their technical workforce
5 in the next 5 to 10 years.
6 According to a report generated by the Economic
7 Modeling Specialists International, in the top 20
8 agriculture and food occupations statewide, there are a
9 total anticipated of 191,350 agriculture-related openings
10 in the next 10 years. Those include material handlers,
11 clerks, truck drivers, sales representatives, bakers,
12 butchers, and meat packers. For farmers, farm laborers,
13 veterinarians, and veterinary technicians, that number is
14 over 8,700 openings in agriculture in Pennsylvania alone.
15 Technology is changing virtually every job.
16 Farmers these days are not only agronomists, human resource
17 managers, equipment operators, and bookkeepers, they are
18 also applied engineers, biology technologists, and GPS
19 programmers. They are supported by a team of technical
20 experts that includes veterinarians, environmental
21 planners, feed experts, genetic technicians, business
22 consultants, and many others. Next to the production of
23 food, technology is often the common denominator in farming
24 these days, as well as in the remainder of agriculture and
25 food industry. 62
1 Addressing these issues will require us to think
2 more comprehensively to develop options with career
3 pathways to bring a larger number of people into the
4 pipelines that lead to technical jobs in the agriculture
5 and food industry. First, we need to find the traditional
6 candidates who are actually coming from family farms to
7 pursue agriculture and food-related careers and to stay in
8 Pennsylvania. This means keeping career and technical
9 education financially accessible and offering the right
10 curricular offerings so that candidates do not feel like
11 they have to go out of State to get the technical training
12 that they need.
13 Second, encouraging persons with technical skills
14 from other pathways to look at agriculture as a career
15 pathway is another option for finding new sources of
16 talent, although we will acknowledge those industries are
17 strapped as well for this talent. In technological fields,
18 there is a great deal of skill transferability from
19 occupation to occupation. The skills of an agriculture
20 equipment repairer are very similar to a mechatronics
21 technician for manufacturing, an automotive repair person
22 from automotive services, or a process technician from the
23 oil and gas industry. This situation offers an opportunity
24 to find new talent for agriculture.
25 Third, there may be ways to firm up new options 63
1 that connect related pathways from fields that are abundant
2 with professionals such as lawyers to help transition farms
3 from one generation to another. W e ’re in dire need of
4 lawyers who are informed in this area.
5 Fourth and finally, we know that w e ’ll be looking
6 for new candidates such as veterans, immigrants, and young
7 people who are interested in agriculture but have no prior
8 background to fill jobs in the agriculture and food
9 industry. Each of these groups will bring new challenges
10 that career and technology education will need to address.
11 Fortunately, w e ’re not starting from scratch. As
12 we begin to think about the needs of agriculture and what
13 will be required of the education system to meet those
14 needs, we have already evaluated our strengths, our
15 weaknesses, our opportunities, and the threats that lie
16 there. A prominent strength clearly is STEM. It’s our 21
17 century skill education. Agricultural education is
18 inherently filled with practical knowledge and skills to
19 foster career- and college-ready students.
20 The Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13 is developing
21 superior leadership skills within the next generation of
22 agriculturalists in a unique and innovative way. Each
23 summer, secondary math, science, and technology education
24 teachers spend an intensive two-week period exploring
25 content through the theme of Pennsylvania agriculture 64
1 taking advantage of the region’s rich history, resources
2 and farming, engineering, and related industries. Content
3 areas such as agricultural systems, energy conservation,
4 geometry, measurement, and data analysis were chosen as
5 part of a comprehensive regional needs assessment.
6 Agriculture is then used as a vehicle to teach science,
7 technology, engineering, and math to students during the
8 school year.
9 And if I can step off script just for a second,
10 again, with our own children on our farm, they learn
11 science through plant biology. They learn math through
12 field prep. They are learning social media skills because
13 we need them to market our farm. That kind of hands-on
14 practical knowledge, if I can get a young adult on my farm
15 that has that sort of real-life experience, it makes all
16 the difference in their success on our farm.
17 Many schools are engaged in public-private
18 partnerships such as the Bedford County Technical Center,
19 which has a program that combines agriscience and
20 biotechnology in an experiential learning-based curriculum.
21 The course introduces students to different techniques used
22 in biotechnology through the use of hands-on laboratory
23 training. The length of the course is one to three years
24 depending on the student’s interests and their goals. And
25 the program maintains an Articulation Agreement with the 65
1 Allegheny College of Maryland.
2 Urban-based agricultural education is also
3 thriving. Philadelphia is home to the Walter Biddle Saul
4 High School of Agricultural Sciences, one of the largest
5 agricultural schools in our nation. Here, students are
6 provided hands-on agricultural education to students in
7 grades 9 through 12 in areas of food processing, animal
8 science, applied horticulture, and natural resources
9 management.
10 Students here at Harrisburg City Schools work in
11 aquaponics labs made possible by the Aggreko company. The
12 project allows students to do everything from grow lemon
13 basil to raising tilapia fish. The program teaches science
14 principles through hands-on experience and the aquaponics
15 system connects students to the business world. And these
16 students are selling their food to local restaurants. So
17 think of everything they're learning about that food chain
18 as they do that. And that's 10 minutes from here so I'd
19 highly recommend that you go and see what they're up to.
20 They also, through the sales of the basil and the fish, use
21 that money to generate the funds to buy replacement plants
22 and fish.
23 Agriculture education programs across the
24 Commonwealth report an uptick in the number of students who
25 are enrolling because of their interest in the science of 66
1 agriculture but who do not come from farm families. Most
2 of the young people coming to our farm are coming from an
3 urban environment. Each of these students is a good
4 candidate for a career in the agriculture and food
5 industry.
6 There are of course weaknesses. There is a lack
7 of K through 12 agricultural education standards and a
8 broader vision for lifelong agricultural education. There
9 exists no approved minimum academic standards for
10 agricultural education in Pennsylvania. Therefore, the
11 content varies widely across programs and it’s very
12 challenging to prepare teacher candidates to fill positions
13 in Pennsylvania with no common content.
14 This situation is a symptom of a much broader
15 problem related to the lack of vision for agriculture
16 education for a lifetime. We need to work together to
17 engage agriculture and food practitioners from K through 12
18 to postsecondary to continuing education and develop a
19 process that is truly driven by the needs of business. The
20 Department of Agriculture looks forward to collaborating
21 with the Department of Education on developing a set of
22 education standards for agriculture in Pennsylvania.
23 There are other many promising opportunities
24 having to do with industry partnerships. One of the bright
25 spots in providing training and education for people in 67
1 agriculture and food industry in the Commonwealth has been
2 two industry partnerships: one run by the Lancaster County
3 Agriculture Council, and another operated by the Chester
4 County Economic Development Council. The Lancaster program
5 has been a partnership with the Center for Dairy
6 Excellence, the Penn State Dairy Alliance, and the
7 Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, and has
8 focused on up-skilling the incumbent workforce in the diary
9 industry across the Commonwealth.
10 The Chester County program has had a more local
11 focus on the food system and we know all throughout Chester
12 County that emphasis on local foods and local economy is a
13 really important part of this picture today.
14 PDA looks forward to collaborating with the
15 Department of Labor and Industry and advocating for those
16 partnerships and others that may be needed to address the
17 continuing education needs of workers in the agriculture
18 and food industry. And I ’ll just mention that when we met
19 with the Department of Labor last week, I mentioned it does
20 mean something that typically when you see labor data it
21 says nonfarm.
22 Finally, what is perhaps our greatest threat, and
23 that is something I’ve heard echoed everywhere today, the
24 public perception not only of technical education but add
25 into that technical education in the field of agriculture. 68
1 That perception and lack of recognition is a huge
2 impediment to our being able to move forward, and frankly,
3 none of us can argue that w e ’ve got to have people who are
4 growing food for us.
5 For the record, formal school-based agriculture
6 education exists in less than 1/3 of local education
7 agencies within Pennsylvania; 12,000 students are enrolled
8 in agricultural education, and I would say only 12,000.
9 Many believe that traditional agricultural production is
10 all that is taught in formal school-based agricultural
11 education. While this is true in certain programs, many
12 reach far beyond the scope of traditional agricultural
13 production. Family misconceptions, just as we heard about
14 technical education, exist about agricultural and natural
15 resources careers, and this often inhibits enrollment in
16 these fields.
17 The public perception of agriculture-related
18 careers as being solely production-based has discouraged
19 many high school students that lack a direct connection to
20 agriculture from pursuing science-based career. That said,
21 it’s vital that we support on-farm rural and urban training
22 programs for those who truly do want to grow our food, our
23 future food-growers, farmers.
24 Creating and implementing programs such as the
25 IU 13 that enhances the teaching of agricultural and 69
1 related sciences within STEM throughout the education
2 system helps alleviate this threat. Additionally,
3 expanding youth leadership development programs such as FFA
4 and 4-H is critical for ensuring that the next generation
5 is sufficiently qualified to be leaders in their field of
6 expertise.
7 In closing, we have a great challenge ahead of us
8 as we think about getting many more people onto the career
9 pathways that lead to technical jobs needed in the
10 agriculture and food industry. We need a shared and
11 demand-driven vision of where we are going. We need to be
12 realistic about the resources we have in career and
13 technical education and the gaps that exist, which are
14 barriers to our goals. We need to develop new
15 collaborations between industry, government, and education
16 to address the barriers to develop a plan of action.
17 Finally, we will need to be innovative as we
18 bring the solutions for our talent issues to a scale that
19 will allow Pennsylvania companies to continue to be leaders
20 in the global economy. The Pennsylvania Department of
21 Agriculture shares this vision and intends to be a partner
22 in making it happen. So thank you very much for your time
23 today.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much,
25 some very important testimony. 70
1 I have a unique district where my district starts
2 in suburbia and goes out to farmland, so we see the
3 connection between growing the crops and supplying that
4 food system into our suburban areas, into the more urban
5 areas.
6 I want to focus in on academic standards. Do you
7 know what States provide academic standards specifically
8 for agricultural education, and are there maybe best-
9 practices, so to speak, standards for those?
10 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: I don’t have the information
11 right in front of me and I will be happy to get that to
12 you. I will say that Pennsylvania did have that at one
13 point and there was a lot of effort put into developing a
14 system. And as many things happen, it stopped being funded
15 over the years, so, yes.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Okay. And do we
17 currently offer any teacher professional development
18 programs to get teachers specifically out into the
19 agricultural community to see how agriculture can provide
20 teaching for their curriculum and standards within the
21 classroom?
22 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Most of that’s informal.
23 The IU 13 program is a very good one. It’s really the only
24 formal one that I ’m aware of in the State.
25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative 71
1 Phillips-Hill.
2 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Secretary Smith-
3 Brubaker, thank you for being here. I would like to follow
4 up on what Representative Grove asked.
5 I also have the great fortune of representing a
6 district that's very suburban, then gets very rural very
7 quickly. And we actually have one school district that has
8 a phenomenal FFA program and agricultural education in
9 their school.
10 When you spoke about the weakness in that lack of
11 K to 12 agricultural education standards, you also said
12 that you were looking forward to collaborating with PDE on
13 developing a set of standards. Is that something that's in
14 the works? Are you there or is that something that you're
15 just sort of saying in a speculative fashion?
16 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: We have gotten together at
17 the table. We've expressed that from a workforce
18 perspective it's imperative that something be developed.
19 There's not been anything formally begun at this point,
20 although much of the groundwork that was laid a number of
21 years ago I feel could be updated. Nothing formal has
22 happened with the Department yet.
23 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: And when you say
24 that these are standards, they're optional; they're not
25 mandatory upon school districts. So school districts can 72
1 use them as a guide to help develop their own standards?
2 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Yes. Yes.
3 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Okay.
4 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: And in many ways just,
5 again, is happening with IU 13 is the opportunity to learn
6 science and math through the lens of agriculture.
7 REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS-HILL: Thank you very
8 much.
9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative Saylor.
10 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Madam Secretary, thank
11 you for being here today.
12 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Absolutely.
13 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Agriculture is very near
14 and dear to my heart since I grew up on a farm in York
15 County.
16 Have we at the Department partnered with grocery
17 stores across the Commonwealth in promoting agriculture? I
18 mean I know we have the logo that’s on some of our food
19 that’s produced here in Pennsylvania, but I think, too,
20 today that, you know, I remember years ago when I first
21 came to the Legislature one of the TV stations here in
22 Harrisburg did like a question when people came out of the
23 grocery store and they said like there’s a drought in
24 Florida and a drought in California that’s going to affect
25 prices; how do you see it affecting your family budget? 73
1 And people said well, it doesn’t affect my family budget
2 because I buy mine here at the grocery store and not at a
3 farmers market, which was a rather interesting comment.
4 So I guess the question is I think adults today,
5 as I ’ve talked about in other education areas, still are
6 not aware of what’s going on in agriculture and how things
7 in the world affect agriculture. I ’m really concerned that
8 as we move forward -- w e ’ve done a good job in Pennsylvania
9 preserving farmland but I don’t think w e ’ve done a very
10 good job not just in Pennsylvania, maybe in the country, in
11 preserving farmers. And that scares me because, as we
12 know, without farmers, preserving farmland doesn’t do a
13 whole lot of good.
14 So what I ’d like to see is maybe if the
15 Department could work with the grocery stores here in
16 Pennsylvania to develop a program where they have a week at
17 grocery store, all the grocery stores do, so kind of a
18 promotion thing not just on Pennsylvania products but just
19 really what agriculture is about -
20 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Right.
21 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: -- and farmers and so on
22 and so forth.
23 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Right.
24 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: That could be very
25 positive. We go to certain places you can go shopping in 74
1 today they give you little tidbits to encourage you to come
2 into their store, food-tasting -- and I won’t mention any
3 of those markets not because I ’m against them; it’s just
4 I ’m not going to give free advertising here -- but things
5 like that that would encourage as people walk into the
6 grocery store every week or a certain week of the year to
7 really educate the consumers about farming in particular in
8 any fun way that you can do it.
9 I know a lot of fourth grade kids and third grade
10 kids today with teachers who’ve gone through the Penn State
11 program -- I forget what it’s called -- but it has to do
12 with training teachers -- Mecee [ph] is back there nodding
13 her head -- is that the kids just get so excited about
14 agriculture, seeing a seed grow into a plant. Our FFA
15 programs and our 4-H programs are outstanding. I think
16 more schools really should have them. And I know it’s
17 sometimes about the dollars but it would be good to see us
18 trying to do a little bit better job in Pennsylvania since
19 agriculture is our number one in the State.
20 The Department does a great job with the dollars
21 it has and I know it seems to always be the one department
22 that seems to get cut in our State budget. It’s my hope
23 that w e ’ll see some more money spent in agriculture.
24 But thank you today for your testimony.
25 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Absolutely. May I make a 75
1 comment?
2 I mean certainly through our PA Preferred Program
3 we’re trying to get much better at helping the consumer see
4 the connection between the farmer and the plate, and large
5 grocery stores are really responding through that program
6 to making that a tighter message.
7 I couldn’t agree more that we need people who are
8 actually farming. When I came on board, one of the first
9 things I expressed was w e ’ve spent so much time trying to
10 make agriculture attractive to young people by sort of
11 getting further and further away or down the stream as far
12 as, well, this is related to agriculture that somehow we
13 forgot to emphasize that farming is a honorable career
14 path, and so I hope we don’t forget that message.
15 And lastly, I ’ll say I had the great fortune to
16 bring to the table last month the National Young Farmers
17 Coalition, the Vermont Land Trust, Delaware Young Farmers
18 with our Farmland Preservation Program to talk about not
19 only when we’re preserving farms and entering into that
20 covenant to keep farmland in active engagement with growing
21 food but how do we make this a hospitable environment for
22 young farmers around land access issues, issues having to
23 do with having to pay off their college loans, and all
24 sorts of ways w e ’re working as a department, how do we make
25 this a hospitable environment for young farmers. 76
1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
2 Representative Lewis.
3 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Thank you, Madam
4 Secretary.
5 You mentioned aquaponics -
6 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Yes.
7 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: -- and the possibility of
8 including that in the CTCs and helping our young people
9 become accustomed to this type of growth in this new age of
10 farming, I know we've tried that in Chester County and
11 right now Cheyney University -
12 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Yes.
13 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: — has a very large
14 aquaponics plan and it's growing -
15 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Yes.
16 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: -- and it's filtering
17 over. Do you see that viable to including that in some of
18 the local technical high schools?
19 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Absolutely. The wonderful
20 thing about it is it can be done almost year-round, it
21 doesn't require a lot of land, and the marketing potentials
22 are just phenomenal today.
23 I will take the opportunity to mention the 100th
24 farm show that will be happening next January and we will
25 have students there demonstrating this Harrisburg 77
1 aquaponics system. And I agree; Cheyney University, again,
2 if anybody ever wants to visit an aquaponics leader, they
3 really should go observe Cheyney University’s program.
4 That’s what we need to be responding to. That’s the future
5 market, particularly in urban environments. And kids as
6 young as kindergarten can be involved in that.
7 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Thank you very much.
8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you. Appreciate
9 the testimony and keep up doing the fine job that you’re
10 doing both as a farmer and as the Deputy Secretary of our
11 Department of Agriculture. Thank you very much.
12 MS. SMITH-BRUBAKER: Thank you.
13 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Next testifier is
14 Pennsylvania Association of Technical Administrators, and
15 we have a great panel: Thomas Allen, President of PACTA,
16 the Administrative Director of the Eastern Center for Arts
17 and Technology; Walter Slauch -- did I say that right?
18 MR. SLAUCH: That was close enough.
19 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: All right. I
20 apologize. Vice President of PACTA, Administrative
21 Director of Center Montco Technical High School; David
22 Thomas, the Administrative Director for the awesome York
23 County School of Technology; and Jacqueline Cullen,
24 Executive Director of PACTA.
25 MS. CULLEN: You’re not going to say the awesome 78
1 Jackie Cullen? Come on.
2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Awesome. I take care
3 of my home area.
4 MS. CULLEN: Okay.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: But feel free to go
6 ahead.
7 MS. CULLEN: I ’m going to present our testimony
8 but everyone is going to respond to questions.
9 PACTA’s membership is comprised of the
10 administrative staff of career and technical schools, as
11 well as the career and technical directors of school
12 districts with large career and technical education
13 programs. Our mission is to promote excellence in career
14 and technical education through leadership, advocacy, and
15 service.
16 We believe that CTE is an integral part of the
17 State system of economic and workforce development. We
18 believe it’s an integral part of Pennsylvania public
19 education system, which serves both secondary and adult
20 students. It must serve the needs of business and industry
21 by delivering programs which meet national skill standards
22 and other recognized credentials, and we believe that all
23 Pennsylvania citizens have the right to quality,
24 affordable, and accessible career and technical education.
25 There are a number of challenges facing career 79
1 and technical schools which are impacting their ability to
2 carry out their missions today. You've heard about some of
3 those challenges earlier. We have addressed those
4 challenges in detail in our written testimony. In the
5 interest of time, we will focus today in our oral testimony
6 on our recommendations to meet those challenges. The
7 rationale for each recommendation is detailed in our
8 written testimony.
9 The quality of career and technical education and
10 its ability to support Pennsylvania workforce and economic
11 development systems has been compromised because of current
12 economic trends and the cost of career and technical
13 education. The method of funding career and technical
14 education in Pennsylvania places approximately 85 percent
15 of cost on school districts, and the lack of adequate
16 career and technical education subsidy has caused school
17 districts to reduce enrollments at area career and
18 technology centers. The current level of subsidy for CTE
19 has become a disincentive to allowing students to enroll in
20 career and technical education.
21 We recently testified before the Basic Ed Funding
22 Commission and made the following recommendation, and I
23 will repeat it here today. And it's covered in great
24 detail in our written testimony. We believe that we need
25 to increase the amount of basic education subsidy by $4,000 80
1 for every student who is enrolled at an area CTC. That
2 would address the excess cost experienced by member school
3 districts. Providing $4,000 subsidy directly to the school
4 district would incentivize support for CTC enrollments and
5 would increase the capacity for CTC enrollments and
6 decrease the cost per student in the budget.
7 In addition, increasing subsidy would result in
8 higher CTE program quality and a greater number of
9 graduates would be able to sustain economic growth in
10 Pennsylvania. Economic growth results in a higher standard
11 of living, which produces a greater tax base for State and
12 local school districts.
13 Career and technical centers are recognized by
14 business and industry as a vital component of workforce and
15 economic development in Pennsylvania. CTCs’ ability to
16 enhance current program components and open new programs
17 essential to meet workforce needs is greatly restricted by
18 the lack of adequate State funding for instructional
19 equipment.
20 Our second recommendation is we recommend
21 increasing the amount of money available and the number of
22 PDE competitive equipment grants. Last year I believe
23 there was $1.6 million available for competitive grants.
24 That has decreased over time from $4 million. It allows
25 schools to compete to purchase larger pieces of equipment 81
1 because those amounts are up to $50,000 each.
2 Our third recommendation, but first w e ’d like to
3 commend the Legislature for their leadership in providing
4 the supplemental funding grant for CTE instructional
5 equipment. We would hope that you would see fit to
6 including that line in the budget again this year, and if
7 funds are available, to increasing that budget line. It
8 has been very well received. It impacts every school, not
9 just CTCs but every school that has an approved CTE
10 program.
11 Our fourth recommendation, we recommend that the
12 Pennsylvania State Career and Technical Education subsidy
13 be increased to a maximum of $1,500 per student while
14 enrolled in a PDE-approved program. The current formula
15 should remain as defined in current law. The subsidy would
16 be used to enhance CTE programs without adding cost to
17 member school district budgets.
18 The next topic we want to cover is the Keystone
19 exams. I ’m sorry that Representative Tobash is not here.
20 The current Keystone assessment and testing program in
21 biology, algebra I, and literature has provided early
22 evidence that students will be and are being denied access
23 to CTE based on their results on Keystone exams. The
24 remedial requirements for students that fail a Keystone
25 exam impose additional staff and time requirements on 82
1 school districts and students. Completing modules in areas
2 needing remediation on specific tests require additional
3 time and supervision and support.
4 When students fail a Keystone exam once, they
5 will be removed from or denied enrollment in career and
6 technical school due to the remediation requirements.
7 Failing a Keystone exam for the second time will certainly
8 eliminate the opportunity for students to participate in
9 CTE, and in some cases students will elect to drop out of
10 school. The results of the early testing indicate that the
11 State Keystone testing standards and graduation
12 requirements will result in significant decreases in
13 student participation in career and technical education.
14 Many school districts have already eliminated the
15 opportunity for ninth grade students to attend CTC programs
16 in anticipation of the scheduling requirements necessary to
17 prepare students for the Keystone examinations. Ninth
18 grade is also the most critical year for at-risk students.
19 Denying them access to CTE may increase the number of high
20 school dropouts. CTE is one of the most effective dropout
21 intervention strategies, as noted by the National Center
22 for Dropout Prevention at Clemson University.
23 Our association has, from the very beginning of
24 the discussion on the Keystones, has not supported them
25 being a graduation requirement. We recognize, however, 83
1 that they are, so our fifth recommendation is we recommend
2 additional study be completed on the impact of Keystone
3 testing on CTE enrollments and that the NOCTI or other PDE-
4 approved industry credentials serve as alternative to the
5 Keystone examination requirements for CTC students.
6 Recommendation number six, with a number of other
7 people have addressed, as have some of the Representatives,
8 we need to increase the availability of career counseling
9 information and counselors for all Pennsylvania students.
10 As I said, the written testimony is 10 pages long
11 and I'll give us all a break by not reading that, but I
12 would hope you'd get a chance to look at it. It gives a
13 rationale for each of those recommendations.
14 Thank you for this opportunity to provide
15 testimony. We would be glad to respond to any questions.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much.
17 And Representative Tobash is here again -
18 MS. CULLEN: I'll just give him this page and he
19 can read it.
20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I guess I want to -
21 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Thanks for the shout-out.
22 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Again, I want to start
23 off with discussion. How is the CTCs' interaction with our
24 Workforce Investment Boards at the local level? Is there
25 communication back and forth and could it be better? Is 84
1 there any communication at all?
2 MS. CULLEN: It could always be better. In some
3 areas it’s excellent and in some areas it’s not. I ’m
4 hoping that under the new WIO Act it will improve but some
5 areas it’s excellent and some it is not.
6 Would any of you like to comment on that?
7 MR. ALLEN: I am from Montgomery County and so is
8 Walt, and I think that we have a very good relationship
9 with our Workforce Investment Board. It has changed a lot
10 since I ’ve been -- I ’ve been at the school for about seven
11 years or so. But I think our relationship is pretty good.
12 Would you say the same, Walt?
13 MR. SLAUCH: Well, my school has the good fortune
14 of being located about 3/4 of a mile from the office of the
15 Workforce Investment Board, but yes, we work very closely
16 with them. In fact, there are administrators at my school
17 who sit on various Workforce Investment Board committees.
18 So the relationship and the communication is very good.
19 MR. THOMAS: W e ’re in a very large one, a little
20 different. Ours is York, Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin.
21 We have a pretty good relationship. As most of you know,
22 it’s just undergone some leadership transition. The new
23 Director seems very interested in working with us, so we
24 are active. We sort of have our own little coalition that
25 was mentioned earlier by Lee Burket, TechLink, with 85
1 Harrisburg Community College where we have put together the
2 tech schools in this region, and we do a lot of things
3 together, staff development and work on projects to keep
4 our staff up-to-date. So that’s a little piece of it also.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Besides the financial
6 aspects, is there anything that the State does, unintended
7 consequences of mandates, that doesn’t allow the CTCs to
8 adapt the careers they’re training students to do with new
9 technology or with new demands out there? Is there any
10 input you can give into the panel on kind of the mandate
11 aspect of that that would not allow you to shift to new job
12 careers opening up or so forth?
13 MR. ALLEN: The startup for a program for us,
14 we’re currently starting a new program so the discussions
15 around that, the costs associated with getting it off the
16 ground can be pretty extensive. So we did a study probably
17 three years ago about potential programs that we could open
18 at our school, and we came up with five programs that we
19 were going to consider starting. One of them was an
20 advanced manufacturing program; that was one of the five
21 that came up as a potential program for our school. That
22 was cost-prohibitive. There was no way that we could
23 afford to start that program without a lot of help for
24 equipment and the usual startup costs that go along with
25 that. And so we started another one of the programs that 86
1 was probably less expensive yet still just as important for
2 our local economy.
3 Those startup costs can be pretty significant and
4 I think that would be a great help getting a program
5 initially started. A lot of time and effort goes into
6 establishing whether it's going to be a viable program in
7 our area, but once we've made that decision that we should
8 move forward, those initial startup costs can sometimes, at
9 least for our school, be the breaking factor whether we
10 start the program or not.
11 MS. CULLEN: From the perspective of someone
12 who's probably worried about taxpaying citizens as much as
13 Chairman Saylor for when I go in the nursing home, the
14 Bureau of Career and Technical Education has been very
15 supportive of looking at innovative ways of doing things,
16 of reacting to what's going on in the field and providing
17 the technical assistance needed. The one thing I would
18 mention, as I mentioned earlier, I think the graduation
19 requirements of Keystone exams is causing disenrollments
20 and kids being held back from even enrolling at this point.
21 I think it has the potential to really be damaging to CTE
22 enrollments going forward.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Interesting. And last
24 question here, I'm going to throw it over to Representative
25 Saylor. 87
1 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: For all of you, I guess
2 the question is -- I ’ve met with Chancellor Brogan. We
3 have some problems to deal with in our State-owned
4 universities, some failures in some of the schools in
5 there. Have any of you been contacted by any of our State-
6 owned or State-related universities in working together and
7 how they can help you and how to maybe make it easier in
8 your jobs in programs that they can offer or assistance
9 they can offer you up until now if you’ve been offered?
10 And the real concern I have is that we have some of our
11 State schools and universities who are seeing very low
12 attendance now, and I’ve suggested to Chancellor Brogan so
13 I ’m interested to see if any of you have been contacted.
14 And again, I just recently brought it up with him, but in
15 the past have you been contacted by any universities or
16 schools in our State and are they private universities or
17 contacting you, so on and so forth? Just any comment from
18 any of you on that?
19 MR. ALLEN: I have not been approached by any of
20 the universities about creating a program. However, we do
21 have universities that recruit students at our school, so
22 during open house we invite everyone to come to the open
23 house and get the opportunity to talk to parents and so on.
24 We don’t have a counseling program at our school. The
25 counseling is all taken care of in their high schools. 88
1 But we do have a fair number of students that end
2 up going on to higher education, four-year degrees and two-
3 year degrees and postsecondary. It’s pretty high. I think
4 sometimes it’s surprising how many students from career and
5 technical schools do that. But recently I haven’t had
6 anybody reach out in that capacity.
7 MR. SLAUCH: Go ahead, Dave.
8 MR. THOMAS: We have a really good relationship
9 with Penn College of Tech. A lot of our students go there.
10 They’re down at the school numerous times. We also work
11 with Thaddeus Stevens back and forth. That’s a great
12 opportunity for our students to further their career
13 education. So those are a couple that we have a pretty
14 good working relationship. I wouldn’t say they’ve recently
15 reached out; it’s just been ongoing for years.
16 MR. SLAUCH: Our relationship is very much the
17 same. It really is more on a recruiting basis, schools
18 that come into our school to recruit students for their
19 programs.
20 MS. CULLEN: Let me say that at least three of
21 our schools -- you heard a program mentioned earlier that
22 is Lehigh and Berks-Reading have relationships with
23 Bloomsburg. I believe there’s also an arrangement with
24 Clarion and Venango County. So there are some instances.
25 I will say, however, I have been contacted recently by 89
1 Carol Adukaitis from the State System of Higher Ed, and
2 when I went out in the hallway a few moments ago, Sue
3 Mukherjee said we need to get together; I want to talk
4 about some ways we can help you. And Sue is from the State
5 System of Higher Ed.
6 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Well, my question to all
7 of you or to one of you, whoever wants to answer it or all
8 of you, is if you had your choice or if you could sit down
9 and write something, how can our State-owned universities,
10 I ’m going to ask that, but any of the universities, but
11 State-owned and State-related be more helpful to you in
12 getting the job done in this field? Any suggestions or
13 comments at this time? Other than just recruiting
14 students, I mean is there something else they can offer -
15 MS. CULLEN: Well, I think one of the things,
16 because Pennsylvania being such a diverse State and having
17 a community college system that doesn’t cover the whole
18 State, but between community colleges and State-related and
19 State system schools, if some of the State system schools
20 started programs which could be articulated with CTE
21 programs because there are certain areas of the State
22 there’s really not an opportunity for a student to go on if
23 they’re in a CAD program in high school, if there’s not a
24 community college in that area, there’s not an opportunity
25 for them to go on without moving, which, quite frankly, if 90
1 you look at the data on our students, they don't like to
2 move. They stay in their home communities. So that would
3 be a way that I could envision the State system working
4 more to offer some associate degree or credential programs.
5 Working with our schools would be one way.
6 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: Thank you.
7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Representative Tobash.
8 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Thank you.
9 Thank you for your testimony.
10 I've got to tell you that this is without a doubt
11 really I think the most important hearing that's going on
12 here in the Capitol today. I think it's the only hearing
13 going on in the Capitol.
14 The testimony that you guys give is the Business-
15 Education Partnership. The work that you do is our
16 Business-Education Partnership and I commend you for that.
17 If you mentioned me, I'm sure that you mentioned
18 me because I've been pushing back on Keystone exams.
19 MS. CULLEN: Yes, that's why.
20 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Yes, and I know that
21 they're an impediment to applicable learning and I've taken
22 and I've heard so much about these exams. My daughter is
23 in eighth grade right now. She's got a month of
24 standardized testing that they are subjected to right now,
25 and it is shrinking our learning time and replacing it with 91
1 assessment time. And I just think that w e ’ve gone way
2 overboard. I ’m disappointed that w e ’ve narrowed curriculum
3 to the point that many of these programs that we talk about
4 aren’t available to every student, and they’ve got to make
5 a choice if they’re going to go into a technical field.
6 And they should all be exposed at a very young age to the
7 different opportunities that you guys have available to
8 them.
9 And when I hear the fact that you talk about many
10 of your students go on to higher education, to a two-year
11 degree or a four-year degree or a master’s or a doctorate,
12 I think that bodes well. We need to do that. I say this
13 all the time when I ’m back in the district that w e ’re going
14 to be successful when I see valedictorians graduating from
15 CTCs, and when we start to see that happen, people will
16 realize that there’s great career and job opportunities
17 available in the marketplace and they can go further. They
18 can go back to their home school and get the best science
19 and get the best math. And if that’s the career path that
20 they choose, they should absolutely be able to do that.
21 I take a look at some of these standardized
22 tests, and I ’m not against all of these exams. I think
23 that we need some level of assessment. But when I look at
24 the NOCTI exams and I open them up, it makes sense to me
25 that everybody should know some of the things that are in 92
1 those exams. I'm not so sure that the Keystone biology
2 exam can stand up to that same litmus test.
3 So I think that we have to continue to work on
4 it, and I understand your comments about the graduation
5 requirement, and I think that we have to take a look at the
6 graduation requirement but also the remediation that we're
7 asking the schools to do. So we want to get to the right
8 spot.
9 I also say that I'm tired of government telling
10 you what to do. I'd rather hear what you're going to do
11 when we take the shackles off. So if we can continue down
12 that path and give you the resources and the tools you
13 need, I'm anxious to see and hear about the good work that
14 you're going to be able to perform.
15 So at this point in time we've got a bill; we're
16 working on it. Tell us in an ideal world what can we do
17 for you? What can we do for you at this juncture to make
18 your world better as far as the work that you're doing for
19 our students?
20 MS. CULLEN: In terms specifically of the
21 Keystone exams?
22 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Well, I mean we're
23 talking about standardized testing right now for just a bit
24 and we do have a bill that we're working on but -
25 MS. CULLEN: Right — 93
1 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: — sure, if there’s a
2 number of things that we can take off your plate to help
3 you do better work, I ’d like to know.
4 MS. CULLEN: I think that there’s nothing wrong
5 with having Keystone exams but we don’t believe that the
6 whole of a student’s K through 12 education and ability to
7 graduate should be based on three exams and in fact could
8 come down to being based on one exam if they can’t pass all
9 three exams. We believe in accountability but we don’t
10 believe that those exams should be required. It’s too much
11 right now of the testing driving the education process
12 rather than education making the decisions about what’s
13 best for kids based on what’s best for kids.
14 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Tell me about the
15 enrollment in your centers, specifically York. I ’ve heard
16 good things about the work that you’re doing in York. Are
17 you full to capacity?
18 MR. THOMAS: W e ’re full, yes. We have 1,600
19 students. We should have probably close to 1,700 next
20 year. It’s an interesting point. We could be larger but
21 w e ’ve been asked to stay at this size because the finance
22 for the districts has become a burden to send students to
23 our school. So I guess basically to save money w e ’re
24 holding our school population down.
25 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: It’s costing school 94
1 districts money, taking money out of their budgets -
2 MR. THOMAS: Correct.
3 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: — and it’s a funding
4 problem for local school districts. So funding is also an
5 impediment for local school districts to get children into
6 CTCs?
7 MR. THOMAS: Every student that comes in our
8 school has a price on their head to the local school
9 district, and as you know, all the school districts are in
10 financial straits right now, so that additional vocational
11 allotment that Jackie mentioned would be extremely helpful
12 to our districts to send the student because we are
13 comprehensive. The students come here in ninth grade so
14 they’re here full-time.
15 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: I know we see this in our
16 local area in Schuylkill County. So there are some
17 programs that are really favored so you have to block
18 children out of some programs that are favored and then
19 you’ve got some other programs that maybe not so many empty
20 seats. I mean you have large waiting lists for your most
21 desired -
22 MR. THOMAS: Yes, we don’t have too many empty
23 seats, but we did turn away about 400 students this year.
24 We had over 800 applications and we accepted about 450, so
25 there were numerous students that were not able to attend. 95
1 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: What do you think about
2 the prospect for those 400 kids that really wanted a
3 technical education? Where are they doing to end up?
4 MR. THOMAS: Hard to say. They would have to be
5 taking something back at their home district. W e ’ll give
6 them another chance. We do accept some tenth grade
7 students due to attrition from students moving out of the
8 district or into another State or for other reasons, but
9 basically, they’re not getting the opportunity.
10 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: You’ve been asked by your
11 school districts not to expand your enrollment and the size
12 of your programs and you’re turning away 400 kids that
13 think that they would be better served by having a
14 technical education?
15 MR. THOMAS: Yes.
16 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: All right. Thanks.
17 Thank you for your testimony.
18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you.
19 And since we have some time left, my final
20 question, we had a roundtable in York hosted by Senator
21 Scott Wagner and Dave was kind enough to attend that.
22 There was one key point that seemed to garner some interest
23 and I had the opportunity to go visit Southwestern School
24 District. There was a local businessman that actually
25 started an after-hours welding program within the school 96
1 district as a partner. The suggestion was to allow local
2 businesses through a tax deduction to donate money to do
3 maybe the startup costs for programs and stuff, kind of
4 modeled after the EITC program. Would you say that would
5 be something that would be beneficial and something that
6 you would look at as a funding opportunity for at least
7 some startup costs between CTCs or CTEs within the
8 Commonwealth?
9 MS. CULLEN: I ’ll respond to that because we have
10 a sister 501(c)(3) organization that is an educational
11 improvement organization because until recent legislation,
12 CTCs were not mentioned as a direct recipient. And over
13 the years we have had significant contributions from
14 companies. We've had companies give $200,000 perhaps to
15 help schools with funding mainly of equipment because
16 equipment is expensive. If you want to keep your program
17 up to industry standards, it is expensive. So I think that
18 kind of program specific to career and technical education
19 would be great.
20 I think the original bill that was presented
21 talked about a 10 percent set aside for career and
22 technical education in the EITC program, but as we all
23 know, the educational improvement part of the EITC part is
24 really oversubscribed to say the least, so perhaps a
25 standalone bill that focuses specifically on career and 97
1 technical education so that it did not hurt those other
2 charitable organizations who need the money from the EITC.
3 I think it would be well received by the business community
4 and our schools.
5 We have great support from the business
6 community. It's the impediments of getting the student
7 there. We do a great job with them once we have them.
8 Business is happy with our graduates. But it's getting
9 them there and making sure we have the quality programs to
10 provide them with an education.
11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I appreciate that. And
12 thank you very much for your testimony. Appreciate it.
13 Thank you.
14 MS. CULLEN: Thank you.
15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Next, we have
16 Pennsylvania School Boards Association Vicki Smith, Board
17 President, Homer Center School District; Eric Wolfgang,
18 Board President, Central York School District; and John
19 Callahan, Senior Director of Government Affairs of School
20 Boards Association.
21 Thank you very much.
22 MS. SMITH: Thank you.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Good morning,
24 afternoon.
25 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Still morning. 98
1 MS. SMITH: Still morning.
2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Still morning? All
3 right. Good morning. I appreciate you coming out, and
4 please feel free to start when -
5 MS. SMITH: Thank you very much for having us
6 today. My name is Vicki Smith and I'm the Board President
7 of the Homer Center School District in Indiana County. I'm
8 also Chairperson of the Joint Operating Committee of the
9 Indiana County Technology Center, which is a governing body
10 for the Center.
11 With me today is Eric Wolfgang, who's the Board
12 President of Central York School District, and a former JOC
13 member of the York County School of Technology. We speak
14 to you today from our perspective as board members.
15 The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is a
16 nonprofit statewide association representing the 4,500
17 elected officials who govern the Commonwealth's public
18 school districts. PSBA is a membership-driven organization
19 that is pledged to the highest ideals of local lay
20 leadership for public schools. Our membership not only
21 includes school board members but career and technical
22 centers, as well as solicitors and supervisors.
23 Thank you for allowing us to speak with you today
24 to participate in the dialogue and to continue working with
25 us. We'd like to thank Chairman Grove and all of the 99
1 Committee for giving PSBA the opportunity to testify on
2 issues related to technical education and career readiness.
3 PSBA supports the work of the Subcommittee
4 refocus efforts to enhance career and technical education
5 programs in Pennsylvania. I ’m going to skip over the next
6 several paragraphs of our written testimony and w e ’re going
7 to talk about how career and technical centers relate to
8 our experiences.
9 My experience with the Indiana County Technology
10 Center, ICTC, began in 1999 and I have served continuously
11 since that time. When I was appointed as Homer Center’s
12 representative, to be honest at that time I knew very
13 little about educational opportunities being offered by
14 ICTC. However, I quickly realized the value of vocational
15 and career education offered by ICTC and became one of its
16 biggest supporters.
17 Our tech center is an amazing place where
18 students have the opportunity to learn marketable career-
19 enhancing skills while earning their high school diploma,
20 additional industry certifications, and, for some, college
21 credit. I found that our career and technical center also
22 provides a place where all students have the opportunity to
23 excel and truly shine.
24 I ’m going to tell you about several of those
25 students. Many of the students at ICTC are invisible in 100
1 their home districts. The opportunity to excel in their
2 career field through SkillsUSA competitions, other
3 competitions, and live work in the community give ICTC
4 students and opportunity to shine, an opportunity that
5 doesn’t exist or is too risky for them at their home
6 district.
7 The three students that produced an award-winning
8 NOCTI video that was shared at the PASA-PSBA School
9 Leadership Conference has stated that this one award has
10 changed their lives. They now believe in their skills and
11 they’ve developed self-confidence in their ability that
12 they will have success in their careers. One girl actually
13 said to our Director that she believed she would never have
14 any success in life.
15 Because of their success at ICTC, the Principal
16 at their sending school has now given them several school-
17 wide photography projects. This would never have happened
18 if it hadn’t been for their success at the tech center.
19 They are now visible to the Principal at their home school
20 and perhaps to several of the teachers and their peers as
21 well.
22 ICTC flourishes because of our affiliation with
23 industry, the support of our local school districts, our
24 program sponsors, and our dedicated, highly qualified
25 administration and staff. Our industry partners support 101
1 ICTC through their mentorship, equipment donations, supply
2 donations, and internship opportunities. The sending
3 districts support ICTC by encouraging students to explore
4 the programs offered at the center and through tuition paid
5 by the schools for our students who choose to attend.
6 The reality is that no matter how much support we
7 get from our schools and local industry, costs keep going
8 up and the technology needed for the jobs of today, as well
9 as the jobs of the future, keeps evolving. None of our
10 districts can keep up with these demands on our own. As
11 you’re all aware, State revenue for sending districts
12 averages 39.6 percent. If the State can increase this
13 figure across the board, then the home schools would not
14 have to be faced with increasing the local tax burden to
15 fund all of our schools.
16 The seven school districts of Indiana County,
17 which comprise a sending district of ICTC, have embarked on
18 an exciting new project to bring up-to-date and forward-
19 looking opportunities to our students. By working
20 together, we are doing something different and w e ’re
21 leading the way.
22 Our JOC is partner with NASA-affiliated
23 Challenger Center for Space Science Education to bring a
24 Challenger Learning Center to our campus, the first one in
25 the State of Pennsylvania. The Center will be a showcase 102
1 for the Commonwealth. The Center will service K through 8
2 students in 22 western counties with exciting space-themed
3 STEM experiences. We view Challenger as the catalyst that
4 will spark the light of enthusiasm in our younger students
5 for science, math, and technology education to ignite their
6 imaginations to all the possibilities of the future.
7 However, once that spark is lit, how do we fan
8 the flame? Where do our students go once the mission has
9 ended? Our sending districts are collaborating to create
10 STEM ICTC, a first-class STEM facility located on our
11 campus. The pathways have been determined, costs to
12 operate are being analyzed, and fundraising is underway and
13 the excitement is growing. We were fortunate to receive
14 the support of the Pennsylvania Department of Education
15 through a line item in last year’s budget and w e ’re asking
16 you for continued support of this project.
17 Research has shown that students in western
18 Pennsylvania are underserved in the areas of science and
19 math education. Challenger helps to close this gap for our
20 youngest students. STEM ICTC further closes the gap for
21 the high school students of Indiana County. In addition,
22 we are creating workforce development opportunities for
23 adults and nontraditional students in our area. The model
24 we are creating at ICTC, shared STEM education, can be done
25 across the State for similar-sized schools. 103
1 Districts across the Commonwealth in home schools
2 and CTCs are already increasing STEM influence in all the
3 curricular areas. Educators are responding to the research
4 and to what we hear from business and industry. Again, we
5 need your support to create a regional CTC that eliminates
6 redundance and duplication of services, and which can be a
7 model for other centers across the Commonwealth. Each of
8 our districts is looking at the best way to implement STEM
9 education into our curriculums. Members of the House and
10 Senate can partner with us in this endeavor.
11 Project Lead the Way, which is a program that
12 Homer Center is exploring, is a nationally recognized
13 standards-based example of a curriculum that works and that
14 is enthusiastically supported by business and industry.
15 STEM education requires investment in technology, both
16 hardware and software. You can help us with this. We
17 promise you that we can and will prepare our students with
18 the best skills necessary for successful, productive
19 futures. At the same time, we will improve our communities
20 and our economic health.
21 Thank you for inviting me here today to share my
22 story with you. I have some brochures that I would like to
23 hand out at the end on our project, and I welcome your
24 questions at the conclusion of our testimony.
25 And now I'd like to turn the remainder of the 104
1 testimony over to Mr. Wolfgang.
2 MR. WOLFGANG: Good morning. I'm Eric Wolfgang
3 and I'm the Board President of Central York School District
4 and have previously served for seven years as the JOC
5 member of the York County School of Technology.
6 I also wish to thank the Committee for the
7 opportunity to testify today.
8 I am a proud graduate of the York County School
9 of Technology during which time my technical course of
10 study at the school was their electronics program more
11 years ago than I'd like to mention. I went on to get a
12 postsecondary degree in electrical and electronics
13 engineering technology from Penn State and I can say I'm
14 still employed today in the field of electronics as a
15 Quality Assurance Manager.
16 There are 14 school districts in York County that
17 comprise the sending districts of YCST, and York Tech is
18 one of only a few comprehensive technical schools
19 throughout the State whereby they supply not only the
20 technical programs but also all academic subject areas.
21 Over the last several years, the school has
22 expanded their offerings and altered their schedule in
23 order to service part-time students from sending districts.
24 These students may want a specific technical course of
25 study but wish to remain at their home school for 105
1 everything else.
2 In addition, as a fully comprehensive high
3 school, there's a very large special education student
4 population, which requires many additional dollars to
5 support their education, as I am sure you are aware. Many
6 of these students benefit greatly from a technical
7 education, which helps them become productive members of
8 the future workforce.
9 The school currently serves, as you heard, just
10 under 1,700 students in grades 9 through 12 and also a very
11 large adult evening program.
12 Because our tech school is comprised of 14
13 different sending school districts, it's becoming
14 increasingly more challenging to meet the budgetary needs
15 of the tech school when each of our 14 districts are
16 wrestling with their own budget constraints every year.
17 York County has been one of the fastest-growing
18 areas of the State over the past decade but State funding
19 has not kept pace with this growth. We very much want to
20 increase programming and student population at the school
21 but have had to proceed more slowly than we would have
22 liked because of such a small amount of State funding that
23 goes directly to the tech school.
24 The large adult education program also helps the
25 community greatly but adds to the ongoing upkeep and 106
1 maintenance of the building. The tech school is not
2 allowed to maintain a fund balance of any significant
3 amount making it difficult to plan for normal year-to-year
4 maintenance of the facilities. When major unexpected
5 expenses do arise, the 14 school districts have to come up
6 with the necessary funds to address the concern usually
7 without any advanced budgetary planning on their own
8 budgets.
9 As a product of tech school, I have a great
10 perspective on the importance of career and technical
11 education and have remained committed to that during my 16
12 years on the school board. Looking at the issue from a
13 statewide perspective, the system that was established is
14 generally working but its capacity is based upon funding.
15 PSBA has held for many years that the State should increase
16 the amount of per-pupil State basic subsidy for CTCs so
17 that school districts do not have to bear the majority of
18 the costs.
19 Currently, approximately 5 percent of a CTCs
20 budget comes from Federal Perkins funding, 10 percent or
21 less comes from the State Career and Technical Education
22 subsidy, and the remainder, about 85 percent or more comes
23 from member school districts who pay tuition for their
24 students who enroll in the CTC.
25 Unfortunately, State funding for career and 107
1 technical education has been level funded over the past six
2 years. While we recognize that this request for an
3 increase is not easy considering our current budget
4 discussions, we believe that CTCs are vital to the
5 continuum of career training in Pennsylvania and are worth
6 the investment. This investment could be built into new
7 funding formula on a weighted basis.
8 PSBA also recognizes that the cost of equipment
9 and materials for technical education is one of the largest
10 items on their budgets, but this is also one of the key
11 components to making programs successful. The State should
12 provide a level funding of at least 50 percent or greater
13 for acquiring or updating equipment for career and
14 technical centers and should award tax credits to
15 businesses that make fiscal goods or service donations to
16 these schools.
17 I want to thank you for your time today and we
18 appreciate the opportunity to provide the testimony and we
19 look forward to any questions you may have.
20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you both for your
21 testimony.
22 Mr. Wolfgang, let me start off with you. I
23 always enjoy coming to central York because of your
24 legislative update. I always learn something new and I
25 think central York is always on the forefront of looking 108
1 for that next thing.
2 Towards the end, Dr. Snow [ph] gave a very brief
3 overview of individualized learning, which I think central
4 York is transitioning to, and from what I ’ve been seeing
5 and hearing, other school districts are. How is that
6 individualized learning pattern -- and I think there’s been
7 a very broad discussion of career pathways -- how does that
8 fit into STEM and refocusing our students on potential for
9 careers moving forward?
10 MR. WOLFGANG: Well, we have our own STEM program
11 at the high school but what I think individualized learning
12 plans are going to allow us to do is increase the amount
13 maybe of part-time participants at the local tech school.
14 We were a major driver behind that initiative a number of
15 years ago to work with the tech school to change their
16 scheduling around a little bit so we could have some part
17 time students attend there. And I think that through the
18 IEPs that w e ’re developing will only allow more students to
19 take advantage of that should we be able to work with the
20 tech school to have them be able to accept those students
21 in different capacities.
22 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I think it’s a very
23 neat and exciting proposal that’s out there, definitely
24 revolutionizing the kind of standard, you know, 1940s setup
25 of school districts today so -- 109
1 MR. WOLFGANG: Despite the fact that the tech
2 school is comprehensive, there are a number of students not
3 only in our district but other districts that still want to
4 maintain some sort of semblance to their home school and
5 get their academics at the home school or be there for
6 sports, extracurriculars, things like that. So the part
7 time opportunities would lend itself greatly to increasing
8 maybe the numbers.
9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thanks a lot.
10 Representative Tobash, questions?
11 All right. I don't think we have any other
12 questions, but thank you so much for your testimony. And I
13 think everybody's basically hitting on the same talking
14 points throughout. So thank you very much and appreciate
15 what you do on behalf of your citizens on the school board
16 so -
17 MR. WOLFGANG: Thank you.
18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: — thank you very much.
19 Next testifier is James Buckheit, Executive
20 Director of the Pennsylvania Association of School
21 Administrators. Thank you so much.
22 MR. BUCKHEIT: Thank you. Good afternoon -- or
23 actually morning. You have two minutes until 12:00. I'm
24 actually early.
25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I noticed we're two 110
1 minutes early now -
2 MR. BUCKHEIT: Yes, okay.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: — which is unique.
4 MR. BUCKHEIT: And I will keep you on time.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Yes.
6 MR. BUCKHEIT: I will not drag this out.
7 Thank you for the opportunity to provide some
8 thoughts about the issue of technical education and career
9 readiness on behalf of school administrators from across
10 the State.
11 I'd like to focus on three issues, some of which
12 you've talked about already this morning, perhaps drive a
13 little deeper. It's more observations about the larger
14 trends about things that are happening in school districts
15 and their relationships with career and technical centers.
16 But before I jump into that, I just want to
17 mention and make sure you're aware that the State Board of
18 Education has academic standards in the area of career
19 education and work that apply throughout a student's career
20 so that those standards are to guide instruction in schools
21 on the issue about the labor force, workforce preparation,
22 career opportunities all the way from elementary school up
23 until high school. So that's an important thing to know
24 about.
25 It was actually the last set of State academic 111
1 standards that the board adopted. I think it was either in
2 2006 or 2007 and probably has not been given its full
3 attention and support that it warrants in terms of support
4 and resources provided to schools in that area, so it might
5 be something that you may want to take a look at.
6 Moving on to my thoughts, you’ve already started
7 to talk about the issue and the intersection between the
8 dual accountability requirements that apply to career and
9 technical students, being held to both the State high
10 school graduation requirements, requiring them to pass the
11 Keystone exams, as well as meeting industry certification.
12 So career and technical education students have to meet
13 higher standards in fact than a traditional high school
14 graduate and that issue is starting to rear some ugly
15 consequences across the State.
16 As the Keystone exams are being administered back
17 at the home high school with the part-time CTCs and
18 students who may be interested in pursuing career and
19 technical education may be held from by their home high
20 school from enrolling in a career and technical education
21 program because the student has not demonstrated
22 proficiency on the Keystone exam.
23 And as a result, that’s likely to result in lower
24 enrollments in the career and technical education programs
25 because we sort of have this chicken/egg problem. You want 112
1 to make sure the student is proficient in reading, number
2 skills, and basic science, but unless they demonstrate
3 proficiency there, they're not going to be able to move on
4 to be proficient in their technical education skills. So
5 you need to have both, but right now, the way the system is
6 set up, it is causing a conflict largely because this we're
7 all dealing with 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students so
8 you're trying to jam all this in to this limited three-year
9 time period of when students would be enrolling in career
10 and technical education. So that's an important
11 consideration.
12 I think we all want students to graduate with the
13 skills they need to be successful in a career and in
14 postsecondary education, but right now we need to find a
15 better way to structure this process so that students can
16 be successful when they graduate and allow them to
17 graduate. So that's on the key things that I would suggest
18 that you take a look at.
19 Another sort of unintended consequence of State
20 policy is the entirely appropriate higher standards in
21 terms of background checks for child abuse, criminal
22 background checks, and employment verifications. This
23 problem has started to show itself in terms of student
24 placements as co-op education placements, internships,
25 service learning opportunities. 113
1 Any time a student leaves the school building and
2 is placed out in the community with an employer or a
3 nonprofit agency, that is now becoming a major barrier to
4 that placement to the point where I ’ve heard from our
5 members that some employers are saying if we have to meet
6 all these requirements, as you say the requirements are, we
7 may not accept students in our facility any longer. So
8 those policies are all entirely appropriate to make sure
9 students are protected, but at the same time we need to be
10 smart about how we do that.
11 And just an illustration of that situation, a
12 student who was to be placed in a hospital as a co-op
13 student, when the school district asked the Department of
14 Education who do we need to have background checks done for
15 in terms of that placement, the response was every person
16 on the floor in the hospital. Now, that’s unreasonable and
17 inappropriate, and we know that after that sort of bubbled
18 up that some clarification started to come down from the
19 Department saying, okay, just the supervisor that needs to
20 have the background check.
21 But those issues, you magnify and multiply those
22 situations towards many unknown things that we can’t even
23 estimate as being a real situation right now, those are
24 becoming barriers to putting students into real-life on-
25 the-job training situations, so another thing we need to be 114
1 smarter about in order to advance career opportunities for
2 students.
3 The other challenge that many others have already
4 testified about is the funding issue. And I think I want
5 to talk about what the consequence is because as school
6 districts have struggled and explored their budgets in very
7 fine detail, where do we spend our money, how can we save
8 money and deliver comparable services, they’re starting to
9 look at bringing back some career and technical programs to
10 their high school, particularly things like computer
11 science and programming, things that are relatively low-
12 cost.
13 So instead of sending their student to a career
14 and technical center, they may be saying w e ’re going to
15 offer that program here with our own staff and w e ’ll save
16 that cost of sending that student to the career and
17 technical center. So that is going to reduce the situation
18 of where students are enrolled in career and technical
19 centers and it’s going to hurt their capacity to be able to
20 provide enriched programs in a cost-effective way.
21 W e ’ve seen some school districts starting to
22 explore withdrawing from membership or sponsorship of a
23 career and technical center entirely and deciding that if
24 they could create some of their own programs in their home
25 school and then if they don’t offer a particular program in 115
1 home school, they would tuition that student to the career
2 and technical center reducing their overall costs. W e ’re
3 starting to see that problem multiply in some localities
4 across the State. Again, that’s a factor of the relatively
5 flat support for career and technical center funding
6 itself, as well as the struggles that school districts are
7 facing financially.
8 So those are the three primary points that I
9 wanted to bring to you today with one final suggestion for
10 the Subcommittee, and that is many of the statutory
11 provisions and regulations that govern career and technical
12 education were originally developed in the ’60s. It’s
13 likely that some of those are outdated and should be
14 revised.
15 And given the rapid change in the economy,
16 careers, and employment needs, we need to provide as much
17 flexibility to the career preparation system as we can to
18 respond to that fast-paced change. And we may have some
19 statutes and regulations that get in the way of allowing
20 them to do that. So I just suggest it may be worth your
21 time to take a step and look at in a comprehensive way the
22 laws and the regulations that govern how that system
23 operates.
24 So with that, thank you very much.
25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you. I 116
1 appreciate it. And we have a school code of 1949 so -
2 MR. BUCKHEIT: I don't ask you to take that one
3 on, just a small part.
4 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Although I think it's
5 worthwhile to give a little update to that as well and
6 staff is already glaring at me because I'm a fond reader of
7 that wonderful, wonderful book, endless pages.
8 But if you could, you don't have to do it right
9 now, but provide maybe more in-depth suggestions going back
10 and looking at career and tech stuff, what we can do to
11 alleviate those burdens so school district CTEs and CTCs
12 can adjust and kind of move on the fly and update their
13 programs to needs that they're hearing from out in the
14 community. That would be wonderful to hear that.
15 And questions?
16 Representative Tobash.
17 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Thank you for your
18 testimony.
19 So consolidation is an important term that we use
20 a lot with the goal of saving money. So consolidation at
21 CTCs must be more cost-effective than having school
22 districts bring programs back to their school. Can you
23 expand on that a little bit?
24 MR. BUCKHEIT: In theory that always makes sense,
25 but sometimes on a local practical level it doesn't because 117
1 a school district may have a computer science instructor
2 already on the staff so they already have some capacity to
3 deliver those instructional programs or career programs.
4 Not always the case but really you have to deal with it on
5 a case-by-case basis.
6 Our members tell us that sometimes intermediate
7 unit programs are not always the most cost-effective
8 because of their cost structures and you really need to
9 look individually at the particular situation to determine
10 whether in that case it really is more cost-effective. The
11 salaries may be higher, the benefits may be different, the
12 debt service may be different. There are a lot of
13 variables that go into that, too.
14 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Do you really think that
15 looking at it in the macro that school districts could
16 really save money in the long run by pulling these programs
17 back into their school district?
18 MR. BUCKHEIT: No.
19 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Right. No. No is the
20 answer.
21 MR. BUCKHEIT: That’s right. But, like most
22 things, when you drill down on the individual basis, there
23 maybe outliers.
24 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: It looks good in the
25 short run but really -- 118
1 MR. BUCKHEIT: Yes.
2 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: — I mean the lack of
3 consolidation or the -- really I think the original goal of
4 many of these CTCs are to offer programs that the school
5 district just couldn't afford on their own -
6 MR. BUCKHEIT: Absolutely.
7 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: — and to really make
8 them as sharp as they could be at the CTC level I think is
9 the answer rather than having a playing field that's set
10 up -
11 MR. BUCKHEIT: Right.
12 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: — that is really
13 attracting school districts in the short run to bring
14 programs back into their districts. So I understand that.
15 So as far as cost drivers, look, we're hearing
16 about this. Without taxing our property taxpayers a whole
17 lot more money, taxing, taxing, taxing, and improving the
18 dynamic, but I hear the cries of our local school
19 districts. What's the main cost driver at the local school
20 districts that is causing them to be in so much pain to not
21 allow more kids, children to go into CTCs? What's the big
22 cost driver?
23 MR. BUCKHEIT: It's largely personnel costs and
24 legacy costs of the pension system -
25 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Oh, pensions. 119
1 MR. BUCKHEIT: -- and charter school tuition
2 costs and special education costs. I can go on forever.
3 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Wow. Okay.
4 Mr. Chairman, the train has left the tracks talking about
5 pensions here and -
6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I wonder how that
7 happened, Representative.
8 REPRESENTATIVE TOBASH: Thank you so much for
9 your testimony.
10 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: I want to go into the
11 background checks and unemployment checks, obviously a
12 major issue. I had recently a teacher convicted over 800
13 accounts of child pornography, videotaping kids and stuff
14 like that. It's important, the safety of kids, obviously
15 comes number one. How do we do it in a rational and
16 responsible way?
17 This is a new twist and I discussed the hearing
18 Senator Wagner had in our roundtable discussion where
19 Harley came back and said we want to hire these kids. They
20 want to bring them in but coming back and saying, well,
21 we're going to need to require background checks and go
22 through that process. Where do you see that going and what
23 can we do to assist in creating those opportunities in a
24 better way?
25 MR. BUCKHEIT: Well, first and foremost, we have 120
1 to protect children from those who don’t have the best
2 interests of those children in their minds. So I think we
3 need to be clear, very clear, about who is expected to have
4 the checks done when a student is placed out in the field.
5 That has been one of the major issues. And be clear about
6 the supervision of that student when they’re in the field
7 so that -- understand that anyone who has contact with the
8 student probably needs to have some review done. But we
9 also need to do that in a low-cost non-bureaucratic way.
10 Right now, you have to go to various places to
11 get those done and it costs money. Whether that’s a
12 service that the State ought to provide given it’s in the
13 interest of the entire State and all the students in the
14 State, that might make things a little more palatable, and
15 doing it in a one-stop setting as opposed to having to go
16 to three different places would be much more efficient and
17 less burdensome.
18 So I think some of the problem has been we had
19 multiple bills to implement this and in the process of
20 writing those bills, some things got left on the cutting
21 room floor. And I understand there’s some work being done
22 to try to address some of those concerns, which is just
23 great, and some of it fell on the implementation and the
24 delay in getting clear information out to school districts
25 across the State. 121
1 So I think we need to put some more resources
2 into it. We need to be clear and work with employers to
3 find a way that’s not going to give them any cost or get in
4 the way of their production of what they’re about, but at
5 the same time ensuring that when a student is there,
6 they’re in the hands of somebody who’s going to care and
7 make sure that they’re safe.
8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: And just to clarify, I
9 was 18 my senior year, was one of the oldest in my class;
10 this would only apply to students who are 18 and younger or
11 would those individuals who are 18 in high school, would
12 that apply to them as well?
13 MR. BUCKHEIT: My understanding, it applies to
14 anyone who is in the control of the school.
15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Okay. Thank you.
16 Appreciate that. And no further questions from anyone on
17 the panel?
18 Thank you very much for your insight and your
19 input, appreciate it.
20 MR. BUCKHEIT: Thank you.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Next panel is just one
22 person, David Namey from PSEA Department of Career and
23 Technical Studies. So come on up, and whenever you’re
24 ready, please start.
25 MR. NAMEY: Well, it’s good afternoon now, so 122
1 good afternoon, Chairman Grove, Chairman Harkins, and
2 Members of the House Select Subcommittee on Technical
3 Education and Career Readiness.
4 My name is David Namey and I ’m a teacher of
5 electrical construction at the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and
6 Technical School, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I also serve
7 as President of Pennsylvania State Education Association’s
8 Department of Career and Technical Studies. On behalf of
9 PSEA, I ’d like to thank you for inviting me here to express
10 our views and values on career and technical education
11 programs for our Pennsylvania students.
12 Off script just a little bit, there’s been some
13 very interesting testimony, much of which I have included
14 in here, but if you wouldn’t mind, mine is probably a
15 little bit different so I ’d still like to cover it if
16 that’s okay.
17 Career and technical education in Pennsylvania
18 schools focuses on a mix of career and technical skills,
19 academics, and real-world applications opening the door for
20 our students to career pathways that link them to the
21 learning in the work world. The goal is to provide
22 students with a full range of options, whether they choose
23 to go to work right after school or whether to pursue
24 college or postsecondary education.
25 Career and technical education offers a way for 123
1 schools to reengage students who learn best when abstract
2 concepts are connected to concrete, real-life applications.
3 In today's competitive global economy, CTE is more vital to
4 our students than ever before.
5 As an educator for 39 years in CTE, I'll be happy
6 to respond to any of your questions on what's happening in
7 our classrooms today, but I first wanted to present three
8 recommendations that have some focus for this Subcommittee
9 as you undertake your work over the next year-and-a-half.
10 The first recommendation was career and technical
11 education programs need employers who are committed to
12 providing extended learning working opportunities in the
13 workplace and to support the transition of our students
14 into the labor market. We've already heard some of the
15 difficulties there are with obtaining those clearances and
16 so forth, but I believe there's a few other roadblocks I'd
17 like to make known.
18 Capstone Cooperative Education is a method of
19 instruction available to our students in their senior year
20 that enables them to combine their academic classroom
21 instruction, which is the school-based learning component,
22 with the enhanced occupational instruction through on-the-
23 job learning. This is the work-based component. And this
24 is in the student's chosen career area. Some refer to this
25 as a paid internship program. 124
1 Capstone Co-op is planned and implemented as a
2 method to assist the students in their transition from
3 school to work, and it is planned and implemented in
4 accordance with the student’s declared career objectives
5 and in concert with predetermined expected academic and
6 occupational learning outcomes.
7 The trouble is that few businesses recently are
8 taking advantage of this program. Reasons may vary from
9 their lack of knowledge of such a program or a lack of
10 interest. In my early days of instruction in the late
11 ’70s, business participation was extremely high. Many CTE
12 classes had to turn away intern requests for lack of
13 eligible students. If memory serves me correctly,
14 Pennsylvania at that time was offering an incentive program
15 that provided State tax incentives to partially subsidize
16 the wages that were paid to these student interns.
17 More recently, from 2008 to 2013 Maryland had
18 offered a work-based learning tax credit program. The
19 purpose was to encourage employers to offer approved
20 structured and supervised paid work experiences for their
21 students coordinated through the local Workforce Investment
22 Boards. It might be beneficial for Pennsylvania to reach
23 out to our neighbor and to understand how Maryland’s
24 program worked, what outcomes were measured, and if
25 Pennsylvania can replicate those to incentivize the work- 125
1 based learning in key industries for our young people.
2 The businesses in our Commonwealth today need an
3 educated, trained, and qualified workforce. To accomplish
4 this, Pennsylvania needs a 21st century incentive program
5 to encourage businesses to take advantage of the
6 opportunities that career and technical education provides.
7 Additionally, Pennsylvania also needs an early
8 and sustained career advising system to help students and
9 families make informed choices about the education and
10 careers that are ahead of them.
11 Off this a little bit, I think we've done a great
12 job with -- I know my parents did -- of informing me of the
13 importance of a four-year college degree, but as you can
14 see, I think we've done too good of a job in that area.
15 As you know, though, times have changed. Many
16 students who attend college do not typically finish in four
17 years. Some take five years or more to graduate. Many,
18 sadly to say, do not finish at all for various reasons.
19 I've always had a belief that it is those students that do
20 not finish college that typically do not have the skills
21 that our businesses are looking for. And I think primarily
22 sometimes when we hear businesses talk about the lack of
23 education or lack of quality education that the workforce
24 has, I think sometimes that component of students, that
25 group of students that has typically not finished college, 126
1 nor have they gained any career skills at a career center,
2 those are the ones that I think businesses are typically
3 talking about.
4 Pennsylvania needs to do a better job of
5 providing career guidance so that our students have a
6 better understanding of the many careers that are out there
7 in the world and the pathways to get there. This
8 counseling needs to be available not only in the high
9 schools, but more importantly, in the early grades. Many
10 careers today require less than a four-year degree. The
11 fast-growing sector of our economy is for highly skilled
12 workers with some college or an associate's degree.
13 Today, more than half the jobs in Pennsylvania
14 require some postsecondary or associate's degree education
15 but not a four-year degree, yet only 26 percent of the
16 Commonwealth's workforce possess this level of education.
17 Students and parents need our help to explore those
18 opportunities and to travel the pathways to get there,
19 whether it means pursuing a four-year college degree, a
20 two-year associate's degree, or a one-year certificate
21 program.
22 Finally, if CTE is going to be a priority for the
23 long-term economic growth of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth
24 needs to invest in CTE programs by increasing the State's
25 funding commitment. Schools can obtain the reimbursement 127
1 for the cost of CTE programs through the vocational state
2 subsidy. The subsidy is based on a formula that takes into
3 account average daily membership of CTE-enrolled students
4 and other factors.
5 While the subsidy is formula-driven, annual
6 reimbursements are capped usually due to budget
7 constraints. As a result, the subsidy provides less than
8 $1,000 per student enrolled in career and technical
9 education programs. For 2014/2015 fiscal year, the subsidy
10 only covered 46 percent of the amount that was actually
11 needed to fully fund the subsidy formula.
12 For the past five budget cycles, this
13 appropriation has been either cut or has been frozen at its
14 present amount, which is $62 million. Coupled with the
15 cuts to Federal funds from Carl D. Perkins Vocational
16 Technical Education Act, local school districts are
17 shouldering more and more of the cost of CTE programs.
18 Some of the school districts have sought ways to reduce
19 their budgets of career and technical education centers
20 that provide CTE programs. Some mistakenly believe that
21 controlling enrollments is a way to cut costs at CTE
22 programs. Other districts have attempted to control costs
23 by cutting CTE programs or reducing them to half-time.
24 These reductions in some cases have come at a cost of
25 program equipment or modernization and even classroom 128
1 supply budgets, which provide the raw materials for the
2 students’ hands-on learning.
3 CTEs should not be an expedient cost-reduction
4 strategy for school boards to control their budgets.
5 However, in recent years, that is unfortunately what it has
6 become. If CTE is going to be a priority for our
7 policymakers, that message must be made clear at the
8 statewide level and filtered down to the local school
9 boards.
10 Again, I ’d like to thank you for the opportunity
11 to testify on career and technical education in
12 Pennsylvania and I ’ll be happy to answer any questions you
13 have at this point.
14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much,
15 and I appreciate your dedication and perseverance to the
16 students that you teach in such a critical area today.
17 We’ve had a lot of discussion recently about
18 guidance counselors and how students are getting I guess
19 career counseling. From when you started to now, which has
20 only been one or two years’ service, can you explain how it
21 was done when you first got into teaching and how w e ’re
22 doing it now? Is it a fact of guidance counselors being
23 overworked or being drawn away from focusing on trying to
24 match students up with career possibilities and now they’re
25 focused on other areas? 129
1 MR. NAMEY: I think some of their focus has been
2 diverted, and in some cases they’re concerned about the
3 students’ well-being. I think a lot of the factors that
4 are affecting our schools today, crime, other problems that
5 student populations face, suicides, accidents where
6 students die, there’s a world of things that our counselors
7 are very, very pulled into and probably don’t have the
8 opportunities that they had in the past to talk to the kids
9 that are in the seventh and eighth grade.
10 My belief is that we should go even deeper back
11 into the early grades. Early on I know my parents had the
12 opportunity to speak to me about the importance of what I
13 wanted to do when I grew up, and that conversation took
14 place in fifth, sixth grade, early on. And it was one of
15 the prime reasons that I actually chose teaching. My
16 primary certification level was elementary education, but I
17 happened to be doing electric work during the great flood
18 of ’72 up in our area and ended up becoming an electrician
19 on the side.
20 I think absent of a lot of the discussion that
21 students should have with their parents, I think we need
22 that counseling in the early grades to help stimulate some
23 of their interests.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Do you think we should
25 start STEM and career technical education elementary, 130
1 middle school? I mean generally w e ’re focused on 9 to 12.
2 At what point should we have the introduction to students
3 within our grade levels?
4 MR. NAMEY: I don’t think there’s anything wrong
5 with even the fifth and sixth grade of starting some type
6 of career awareness program, whether it’s a hands-on
7 program that the students participate in, whether it
8 becomes an event that they would attend where we could
9 invite businesses, employers, as well as the local CTCs to
10 participate.
11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Again, like I
12 mentioned, we have Harley-Davidson right in York County.
13 Would that be an awareness to get those students in to tour
14 those facilities to show them that manufacturing has
15 changed over the years; it’s not particularly a dirty job
16 anymore. Would that be beneficial?
17 MR. NAMEY: I think they probably need to be
18 exposed to the manufacturing process because, again,
19 stereotypes being what they are, I think they’re passed on
20 and I think students early, young students, I think they
21 would benefit greatly from seeing some of the modern
22 processes that are going on in our manufacturing plants.
23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: How about your
24 interaction with your fellow teachers? I know in some of
25 our local York County school districts some teachers have 131
1 actually done some work with welding. I know a
2 Superintendent actually took some coursework in welding and
3 tried to get a better understanding. Do you think that's
4 something for professional development, a little more focus
5 in getting maybe teachers who aren't associated with career
6 and tech into those fields and have that discussion?
7 MR. NAMEY: It's funny you should bring that up
8 because the Wilkes-Barre Area CTC has been doing this
9 probably for over 10 years. During the summer we offer a
10 professional development program where we would invite our
11 sending school teachers and counselors to take at least two
12 courses. It's a one-day session where they would have
13 either let's say electrical in the morning and maybe
14 welding in the afternoon, and that continues for the full
15 week. And I think it gives them some insight not only as
16 to what the job entails but the curricular needs of those
17 students.
18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Has it been well
19 received by your fellow teachers?
20 MR. NAMEY: It has. There's usually a line to
21 get into my program. But usually we're turning teachers
22 away from that program in the summer. It's usually first-
23 come, first-served.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: That's all the
25 questions I have. Thank you very much for your testimony. 132
1 Thanks for hanging in there to -
2 MR. NAMEY: Thank you.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: — the very end. It
4 was very informative. Thank you very much.
5 MR. NAMEY: I appreciate it.
6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: That concludes our
7 hearing. I found it very informational. And again, our
8 next one will be May 28th at the Reading Community College
9 focusing on higher education.
10 Any closing remarks, Representative?
11 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN HARKINS: No, I'd just like
12 to thank everybody. I thought this was very good
13 information provided and I look forward to our next hearing
14 [inaudible]. Thank you.
15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Chairman Saylor?
16 REPRESENTATIVE SAYLOR: [inaudible].
17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Thank you very much.
18
19 (The hearing concluded at 12:32 p.m.) 133
1 I hereby certify that the foregoing proceedings
2 are a true and accurate transcription produced from audio
3 on the said proceedings and that this is a correct
4 transcript of the same.
5
6
7 Christy Snyder
8 Transcriptionist
9 Diaz Transcription Services