[G]ov. Phil Scott would like to see associate and certificate degree programs from Vermont Technical College made available to high school students — and offered in the state’s career technical education centers.
State officials believe such a partnership could help plug workforce shortages, make college more accessible and affordable, and create a stronger pipeline of students into the state’s public colleges, which have seen their enrollments decline steadily over the past decade.
The state already has an early college program that pays for high school students who want to attend Vermont colleges in their senior year, and some lawmakers think they could use that same mechanism to help fund, at least in part, the VTC-CTE partnership.
VTC president Pat Moulton told the Senate Education Committee the idea could be a “win-win” for all involved, decentralize the delivery of some of the college’s programs, and help address “screaming” workforce needs.
“I’m viewing this as we have potentially up to 16 regional labs that we can use through our career and tech ed centers. And in some of those cases, those labs are in better condition than we have in the colleges,” Moulton said.
But the college president also cautioned enthusiastic lawmakers not to rush the process. The governor has set aside $200,000 in his proposed budget for next year to fund a design of the program. Moulton said she envisioned hiring a consultant with that money to study what the program would look like, rolling out a pilot in the fall of 2020, and expanding as needed the following year.
That timeline met resistance from committee chair Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, who said he — and Senate Pro-Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden — would like to see a more aggressive schedule.
“Can we have something working by September?” Baruth asked.
Moulton pushed back, arguing that there were a slew of an unanswered questions about how the program might be designed. She said a study is needed to explore how to pay for the cost of the program, how to satisfy accrediting standards, and what VTC programs CTE centers could actually accommodate with existing infrastructure.
“For us to try to figure out all the wheres and why-fors of all this and then market it appropriately to students so that they see the opportunity — I think it’s a lot aggressive to make September happen,” she said.
