In Washington - Nov/Dec 2003
A panel of experts convened by ACTE for a national media briefing on September 15th agreed that despite the economic downturn and corporate downsizing, employers continue to lament a shortfall of workers with the job training and employability skills needed to fill jobs in a number of technical fields from the service industry to manufacturing to engineering. The briefing was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The panel was led by ACTE 2003-04 President Thomas Applegate, and included Mark Clemons, ACTE 2003 Teacher of the Year; Phyllis Eisen, Executive Director, Center for Workforce Success at the National Association of Manufacturing; Timothy Lawrence, Executive Director, SkillsUSA-VICA; and Diane Lindsey Reeves, co-author of Millennials in the Workplace. “The first step in narrowing this workforce supply and demand gap and ultimately solving America’s workforce crisis lies in career and technical education initiatives,” said Applegate. “We must expand the secondary and postsecondary programs that prepare students for the high skill, high wage jobs our economy depends on.” Career and technical education is crucial in giving workers the skills they need to fill the millions of jobs that require highly skilled labor over the next decade, the panel agreed. Applegate added that CTE can also help keep students in high school because national data shows students who are likely to drop out are less likely to do so when they take CTE courses. He added that CTE offers students contextual learning experiences that keep them engaged in the learning process by showing them that what they learn in the classroom can be applied in the workplace. The media briefing was part of ACTE’s effort to keep CTE in the national spotlight and coincided with ACTE’s ongoing image campaign that included an advertisement in USA Today on Sept. 16.
Education groups from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25 to honor members of Congress who have worked during the 108th Congress to elevate the priority for education funding. Reps. David Obey (D-Wisconsin), Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia), Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Michael Castle (R-Delaware) were honored by the Committee for Education Funding at its Gala 2003 Awards Banquet. “The promise of America … is the promise that every child has the opportunity to get a first-rate education,” said Rep. Van Hollen, who called the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act “irresponsible” and said that it would shortchange education. Rep. Obey has successfully fought cuts in education funding and strongly supported multibillion dollar funding increases for new initiatives like classroom size reduction, after-school centers, and school renovation as well as record increases for special education, Title I, and championed the creation of smaller schools. Rep. Byrd, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has fought for classroom size reductions, the use of new technologies in classrooms, and increased teacher training initiatives. Earlier this year, he led the effort to add $6.1 billion to the FY04 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill in order to fully fund Title I for educationally disadvantaged students. Rep. Castle chairs the Subcommittee on Education reform and has jurisdiction over pre-school through high school education, including career and technical education. He fought for increased spending in FY 04, has played a major role in shaping education research legislation and focused on Head Start, testing, flexibility, early reading and teacher quality. Since elected in 2002, Rep. Van Hollen introduced a bill that would fully fund IDEA, as well as No Child Left Behind, and introduced amendments to fully fund Head Start at $12.5 billion over five years.
NCEE policy forum addresses high school reform in the U.S. Educators, scholars and other officials attended a forum on Sept. 29 to address secondary school reform. The day-long discussion was designed to help state and local educators bring about reform in high schools on a large scale. Marc S. Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), said that American high-schoolers are far behind in academic achievement and career and technical education compared to many of their contemporaries in other industrialized nations, and high school reform on a large scale is necessary in order to prepare them for postsecondary education and work. High school reform initiatives in New York, Denmark and Boston were among those examined by panelists in an attempt to identify what works in secondary school education. Presenters included senior representatives from the Danish Ministry of Education, New York school system, Jobs for the Future, and the Florida Commissioner of Education. Those in attendance included members from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor. NCEE and the National Governors Association sponsored the event with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
