Techniques Magazine Techniques Magazine May 2011 : Page 45
Education Secretary’s Video Message Education Secretary Arne Duncan was not able to attend NPS, but he did have a video message for NPS attendees. He said that though the president’s budget called for cuts to Perkins, the president does understand the value of CTE. The key is to strengthen career education programs before more money can be invested in them, Duncan said. postsecondary completion rates, Dann-Messier said. But the field has been plagued by inconsistencies that have only served to reinforce a negative image. Among the concerns: some programs are in need of updated equipment, better education models, and programming that is strongly linked to high-wage, high-demand careers. The new CTE recogniz-es that all students must have a common core of academic and transferrable skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, prob-lem solving, and less need for remediation. “The new CTE is a 21st century education that helps students acquire 21st century skills,” she said. Regarding proposed funding cuts to Perkins, Dann-Messier said the current program needs to be strengthened before it can be expanded. That is why President Obama’s FY 2012 budget proposes to combine the Perkins Basic State Grant and Tech Prep programs and reduce the overall funding for these two programs to $1 billion (resulting in a $264 million or 21 percent cut for Perkins). The good news, she said, is that the reauthorization of Perkins will provide an opportunity to strengthen the program and link it to Top: Approximately 400 people attended ACTE’s National Policy Seminar, held in Washington, d.C., March 7–9. Bottom: A panel of experts discuss the issues driving legislation on Captiol hill. all education programming. To that end, OVAE will be holding meetings across the country to gather information from educators, students, parents, business and industry, and other stakeholders to inform OVAE’s decision making. DOL: Reviving Manufacturing Key to Economic Growth The U. S. Depart-ment of Labor’s ETA is hard at work ensuring that people who are having a tough time getting back into education and training have multiple pathways of entry, said Jane Oates, assistant secretary of ETA. She noted that the recession has hit many industries hard and put many people out of work. Manufacturing has been particularly pummeled, she said, and that’s bad for the economy. “Manufacturing, unlike any other sec-tor, creates wealth,” Oates said, and it cre-ates jobs in a multitude of areas ranging from transportation to supply companies. On the upside, the February 2011 data showed that there is growth in the manu-facturing sector. But one thing that has to be addressed is the fact that young people are not attracted to this field because of their perception of it as low skill, Oates re-marked. CTE has a role to play in getting the word out that manufacturing is now a field of advanced technologies requiring workers with advanced skills. There are going to be budget cuts all around as legislators work to trim the federal budget, and this is a new real-ity that has to be faced, she said. Oates urged career and technical educators to present her department with ideas about what areas can be cut without diluting the quality of programming, or reducing the numbers of people being served. Accord-www.acteonline.org Ma Y 2011 Techniques 45
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