Forge a path to funding
The 2022 Kentucky General Assembly essentially doubled funding for secondary career and technical education (CTE) in the 2022–24 biennial budget. The increased funding will support CTE programs at state-operated area technology centers (ATCs) and local school district-operated career technology centers (CTCs). And it will also direct a change in funding previously restricted to ATCs and CTCs to permit funding of any high-quality CTE program in any public school. It funds programs, not schools. Plus, the budget added millions more for the construction of new CTCs.
Hard work remains to develop the distribution model. But the path to achieve adequate and equitable funding is made clearer. This success results from many steps taken over 20 years. As the last significant increase to CTE funding occurred in 2002.
Documenting the effort and process encompasses a litany of people and events. In reporting the history, no slight to any person or event is intended. This article relies on the written notes and memory of the author. This is a Kentucky story. What worked here may not work everywhere, but perhaps readers will gain some insight or an idea that may be helpful.
Be the advocate you seek.
Kentucky ACTE (KACTE) made a strategic decision to seek partner advocates for CTE. If legislators heard messages about the importance of CTE from seemingly unrelated businesses and associations, attention would increase. That was the plan, and the hope. The Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, the Kentucky Retail Federation, the Kentucky Nurses Association, Associated General Contractors of Kentucky, the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants, labor unions, and others supported CTE.
KACTE joined the state chamber of commerce. Because there it could take a seat on the education council and interact with the larger business community. The Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board adopted a sectors strategy to enhance economic development: advanced manufacturing, business and information technology, construction, health care, and transportation and logistics.
Embrace change.
As the first decade of the 21st century neared its end, Kentucky’s CTE system was in an administrative jumble. The ATCs were managed by a dedicated staff in the Workforce Development Cabinet. The CTCs and CTE programs in comprehensive high schools received oversight from the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Office of Career and Technical Education (OCTE). There were no common standards. A business course in an ATC and one in a CTC could be very different.
In 2010, then-Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday, Ph.D., announced that KDE would be restructured and an independent OCTE eliminated. At the same time, Gov. Steve Beshear formed a task force on transforming education in Kentucky. They recommended merging ATC management and oversight of CTCs and CTE programs into a single office in KDE.
To increase knowledge and understanding of CTE
Further, Holliday challenged us to develop career readiness standards for CTE. The Association accepted the challenge. And we developed a three-part definition of career readiness, two of which were adopted by the state board of education.
Later, they restored OCTE within KDE, which would be led by an associate commissioner of education. KACTE Past-president Dale Winkler, Ed.D., who rose from a local CTSO member to principal of an ATC and now is executive vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), was tasked with the job. The direction was positive, the support growing, and recognition of CTE’s importance had traction. But funding was stymied by other budgetary issues facing the state.
Develop awareness.
Then in 2020, the state received federal pandemic relief funds it could use to support new and existing projects. Thus, a General Assembly task force examined the role and adequacy of CTE, stressing to KDE that it could recommend a funding plan and model. Announced economic development projects would create thousands of jobs, many of which relate to CTE pathways. Awareness was building, and funding was available.
KACTE formed a task force that included Leslie Slaughter, a KACTE member who then served as OCTE policy adviser. OCTE and postsecondary partners were consulted throughout as stakeholders developed a 22-page report on the historical background and current directions for CTE in Kentucky. It included recommendations on adequate funding and access and equity. It included a recommendation for the future to fund CTE programs based on student full-time-equivalents (FTEs) participating in high-quality CTE programs wherever the programs were located. The GA received this report in January 2021. And OCTE fully endorsed its conclusions and recommendations.
Budget and plan for the future.
In truth, the KACTE task force only hoped they would adopt its modest funding recommendation. It was committed to the more expansive access and equity funding recommendation but felt it would take years to move toward that. Then came a precipitating event.
Ford Motor Co. and BlueOval SK announced a $2 billion investment in a battery plant in central Kentucky. That would employ 2,000 construction workers and 5,000 permanent employees. The reality of CTE’s vital importance to the state became very clear. A homegrown, skilled workforce was critical for business and industry to be successful, and CTE pathways were on the road to building that workforce. And ultimately, the Kentucky House and Senate passed a roughly 50% increase in CTE funding, which the governor signed.
Now what?
In a sense, the funding victory was just the beginning. CTE must deliver on the promise of equitable access to all CTE programs no matter their location. That effort is ongoing. Already, the new budget has resulted in an increased number of secondary schools receiving state funding for CTE — from 96 to 316. Success will be achieved through the dedicated CTE teachers and administrators in the state’s public schools. Success will be measured by the achievement of CTE students and their contributions to a dynamic, healthy and growing economy.
Mike Stone is the executive director for Kentucky ACTE.
