Legislative Priorities - Reauthorization of Career Technical Education Legislation

In an effort to capitalize on the successes of quality programs and support innovation within the career technical education (CTE) system, the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) will focus on the following CTE priorities during the upcoming reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (Perkins III):

• Support unique and separate legislation for career technical education because it is an essential component of the education and workforce systems
  • Expansion of quality CTE programs that integrate skills training with academics is critical to the country's ability to compete in a global economy
  • CTE cultivates students' development of general workplace and life skills through ongoing, meaningful partnerships with business, industry, and labor leaders
  • As an integral component of the total education mission, CTE contributes to the goals of high academic achievement, student retention, and motivation to graduate
  • Career and technical education provides choices for learners of all ages to acquire technical skills essential for performance in the workplace
• Encourage innovation
  • Support state leadership with resources for innovative initiatives
  • Support enhancement of professional development to help administrators and teachers meet the needs of today's learners
  • Support enhancement of career clusters as vehicle to ensure rigor in CTE programs and alignment of CTE standards with current business and industry needs
  • Increase the focus on and support of comprehensive career counseling, career awareness activities, and career information
  • Support alternative teacher certification and other policies to help increase the pool of qualified teachers and administrators
  • Support innovative initiatives that promote seamless transitions from secondary to postsecondary education
  • Support a new initiative that promotes national economic security and growth by supporting postsecondary institutions' efforts to close the skills gap this country's workforce faces
  • Support enhancement of student leadership, teamwork, and citizenship through Career and Technical Student Organizations
  • Support the further identification and dissemination of information about exemplary and promising programs administered by the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education
• Support strong and meaningful performance accountability provisions
  • Support Perkins III shift to require that CTE students meet the same academic standards as all other students, along with relevant technical skills
  • Support ongoing development and refinement of the performance accountability system as means to measure and promote improvement in states' CTE systems
  • Support improved collection of national evaluation data and research to improve overall CTE system
  • Support ability to drive resources based on performance
  • Support the development and maintenance of assessment systems designed for career technical education outcomes
• Sustain states' flexibility
  • Support state flexibility to determine allocation of funds between secondary and postsecondary education
  • Maintain flexibility to support gender equity in a whole-system manner
  • Maintain flexibility in the use of funds for needs such as infrastructure upgrades
• Enhance and strengthen the existing governance structure under Perkins
  • Support a single eligible agency (as defined in Perkins III)
  • Support strong role for state leadership, with adequate resources for administration, leadership, and innovation
  • Increase the support for the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education and the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education to support secondary and postsecondary CTE teachers and administrators through leadership development, quality research , professional development, dissemination, and technical assistance
  • Support uses of funds that give states and localities the flexibility to meet stakeholder needs
• Increase the authorized level of funding for Perkins
  • Increase in funds that support Perkins because the federal investment has declined in real dollars and states need additional resources to meet burden of federal reporting and data collection requirements
  • Support maintenance of effort and state administrative match
  • Increase small state minimum—current level of funding is too low to support mandatory activities