Vermont’s career and technical education system suffers from a lack of coordination, regional disparities and challenges with funding, a new report found.
The 79-page report by Colorado-based consulting firm Augenblick, Palaich & Associates and the nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy recommends an overhaul of the systems for funding and governing Vermont’s centers for career and technical education, often referred to as CTEs.
“If the state’s intentions are equity for all students and developing a statewide workforce, then the state needs a more coordinated and coherent statewide strategy for CTE,” reads the report, which was presented to lawmakers Wednesday.
State officials and lawmakers have considered updating the state’s career and tech education system — through which students can take classes in fields like cosmetology, engineering, and health care — for years.
The system has no unifying governance structure, and tech centers’ funding models can leave them competing with local public schools for a shrinking pool of students.
But, according to the report, “Despite years of deliberation and study, little policy change on the governance or funding of CTE in Vermont has occurred, leading to the creation of this study.”
Last year, lawmakers assigned the state’s Joint Fiscal Office to contract out for a report to see how Vermont’s CTE systems “impede or promote the State’s educational and workforce development goals.”
Lawmakers in seven legislative committees were briefed on the report on Wednesday, the same day that first lady Jill Biden and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited the state to tout the Biden administration’s workforce development policies.
Results from nearly 150 interviews and over 700 online surveys showed that many people felt positively about their local career and tech education programs, and most people felt that students had access to CTE courses, the report’s authors found.
But, in a separate question, nearly half of those surveyed replied that students face barriers in actually accessing those courses.
“In order for Vermont to reduce barriers to enrollment and improve the quality, duration, impact, and access to CTE … as well as to meet the state’s evolving workforce needs, simple changes in the system’s governance or funding will not be sufficient,” the report reads.
For one thing, many students live hours from the nearest tech center. The report found that students who lived closer to CTE centers were much more likely to take courses there.
“A student is twice as likely, in the data we had, to have some participation in CTE if they’re on a shared campus, versus coming from a sending school that’s not on a shared campus,” Justin Silverstein, one of the report’s authors, told lawmakers Wednesday.
There is also a widespread lack of coordination across school schedules — both on a daily and yearly basis, according to the report — that can make it challenging for students to enroll in both CTE and general education courses.
Money is a particularly thorny issue. Because funding for public general education schools and CTE centers depend on their enrollment numbers, the two entities are sometimes in competition for the same students. Many CTE centers, meanwhile, lack the space and funding to accept all interested applicants.
The consultants recommended creating an entirely new funding system, in which money would go directly from the state’s education fund to CTE centers.
“Funding should flow directly to CTE centers and be equal by program type across the state,” the report reads.
Vermont’s 17 career and tech centers also fall under a range of governance structures. Eleven are attached to public high schools, while four operate districts of their own. Two others are located at independent schools, Lyndon Institute and St. Johnsbury Academy.
“Currently, the state’s complex CTE governance system has a very localized focus with no statewide framework or coordination,” the report says. “Given the small population and (scarce) resources, Vermont may benefit from more centralized decision-making around staff hiring and development, facilities and equipment updates, programmatic choices, and linkages to the business and postsecondary communities.”
The report recommended consolidating the system: “Consider creating either a coordinated regional governance structure or a single district for CTE.”
The importance of career and technical education has been a refrain throughout Gov. Phil Scott’s tenure at the top of state government.
“We’re still evaluating the report, but we agree it is time to finally act and make CTE a top priority,” Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for Gov. Scott, said in an email.
The administration is “intrigued by the single statewide district model for CTE that is contemplated in the report, especially given Vermont’s size and the need to ensure CTE programs across the state and in regions offer the right balance of programming, work-based learning, and connection to Vermont’s careers in high priorities sectors,” Maulucci said.
Scott Farr, the superintendent of Springfield’s River Valley Technical Center, said in an interview that the report had correctly identified many of the state’s CTE challenges.
“We’ve gotten to a place where workforce is a pressing issue and it’s time to really move forward with a bigger systems change,” Farr said. “At least that’s what I hope happens.”