    [House Hearing, 114 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                    IMPROVING CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
                   TO HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED IN THE WORKFORCE

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   before the

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
                      ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

                             COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                               AND THE WORKFORCE

                         U.S. House of Representatives

                        ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, OCTOBER 27, 2015

                                   __________

                               Serial No. 114-33

                                   __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce

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                    COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE

                        JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman

    Joe Wilson, South Carolina           Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
    Virginia Foxx, North Carolina            Virginia
    Duncan Hunter, California              Ranking Member
    David P. Roe, Tennessee              Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
    Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania         Susan A. Davis, California
    Tim Walberg, Michigan                Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
    Matt Salmon, Arizona                 Joe Courtney, Connecticut
    Brett Guthrie, Kentucky              Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
    Todd Rokita, Indiana                 Jared Polis, Colorado
    Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania           Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
    Joseph J. Heck, Nevada                 Northern Mariana Islands
    Luke Messer, Indiana                 Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
    Bradley Byrne, Alabama               Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
    David Brat, Virginia                 Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
    Buddy Carter, Georgia                Mark Takano, California
    Michael D. Bishop, Michigan          Hakeem S. Jeffries, New York
    Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin            Katherine M. Clark, Massachusetts
    Steve Russell, Oklahoma              Alma S. Adams, North Carolina
    Carlos Curbelo, Florida              Mark DeSaulnier, California
    Elise Stefanik, New York
    Rick Allen, Georgia

                        Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director
                     Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director
                                     ------

      SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

                         TODD ROKITA, Indiana, Chairman

    Duncan Hunter, California            Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio,
    Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania           Ranking Minority Member
    Dave Brat, Virginia                  Susan A. Davis, California
    Buddy Carter, Georgia                Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
    Michael D. Bishop, Michigan          Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
    Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin              Northern Mariana Islands
    Steve Russell, Oklahoma              Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
    Carlos Curbelo, Florida              Mark Takano, California
                                         Katherine M. Clark, Massachusetts

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

    Hearing held on October 27, 2015.................................     1

    Statement of Members:
        Fudge, Hon. Marcia, L., Ranking Member, Subcommittee On Early
          Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.............     4
            Prepared statement of....................................     9
        Rokita, Hon. Todd, Chairman, Subcommittee On Early Childhood,
          Elementary, and Secondary Education........................     1
            Prepared statement of....................................     3

    Statement of Witnesses:
        Hiftalin, Dr. Deneece G., President, Salt Lake Community
          College, Salt Lake City, UT................................    13
            Prepared statement of....................................    15
        Major, Dr. Douglas, Superintendent/CEO, Meridian Technology
          Center, Stillwater, OK.....................................    21
            Prepared statement of....................................    13
        Johnson, Mr. Tim, Director of Government Relations, National
          Center for Construction Education and Research, Baton, LO..    32
            Prepared statement of....................................    34
        Ricks, Dr. Irelene, Director, Diversity in Life Science
          Programs, Keyston Symposia on Molecular and Cellular
          Biology, Silverthorne, CO..................................    26
            Prepared statement of....................................    28

    Additional Submissions:
        Ms. Fudge:...................................................
            Prepared statement of Jim Langevin.......................     6
        Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from the
          state of Pennsylvania:.....................................
            Prepared statement of Career and Technical Education
              Caucus.................................................    10

                         IMPROVING CAREER AND TECHNICAL
                           EDUCATION TO HELP STUDENTS
                            SUCCEED IN THE WORKFORCE

                                  ----------

                           Tuesday, October 27, 2015

                           House of Representatives,

                        Subcommittee on Early Childhood,

                      Elementary, and Secondary Education,

                   Committee on Education and the Workforce,

                                Washington, D.C.

                                  ----------

        The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
    Room 2261, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Todd Rokita
    [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
        Present: Representatives Rokita, Thompson, Brat, Carter,
    Bishop, Grothman, Fudge, Davis, Grijalva, Bonamici, Takano, and
    Clark.
        Also Present: Representatives Kline, Scott of Virginia and
    Polis.
        Staff Present: Lauren Aronson, Press Secretary; Janelle
    Belland, Coalitions and Members Services Coordinator; Amy Raaf
    Jones, Director of Education and Human Resources Policy; Nancy
    Locke, Chief Clerk; Dominique McKay, Deputy Press Secretary;
    Brian Newell, Communications Director; Krisann Pearce, General
    Counsel; James Redstone, Professional Staff Member; Alex Ricci,
    Legislative Assistant; Emily Slack, Professional Staff Member;
    Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; Juliane Sullivan, Staff
    Director; Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern and Fellow
    Coordinator; Austin Barbera, Minority Staff Assistant; Denise
    Forte, Minority Staff Director; Brian Kennedy, Minority General
    Counsel; Alexander Payne, Minority Education Policy Advisor;
    Veronique Pluviose, Minority Civil Rights Counsel; and Rayna
    Reid, Minority Education Policy Counsel.
        Chairman Rokita. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee
    on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education will
    come to order.
        Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's hearing on
    career and technical education. I would like to thank our
    witnesses for joining us as we explore opportunities to better
    serve America's workforce.
        Young adults are entering a job market today that is vastly
    different than the one that existed just a generation ago.
    Technological advances and the growth of a global economy have
    significantly changed the kinds of jobs available and the
    skills required to do them, making quality education and
    training vital ingredients to success in today's workplaces.
        This new reality has been painfully evident in the wake of
    the recent recession. We are more than 6 years into the so-
    called recovery, yet millions of Americans continue to struggle
    with finding a good-paying job. Meanwhile, industries critical
    to our economy--health care, engineering, and manufacturing,
    for example--have jobs to fill and not enough qualified
    applicants to take them, a problem we have come to know as the
    skills gap.
        Recognizing the urgent need to close the gap and put
    Americans back to work, Republicans and Democrats came together
    last Congress to fix a broken and outdated job training system.
    The bipartisan, bicameral effort resulted in what we call the
    Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, a commonsense
    solution to modernize and improve the Federal workforce
    development system. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
    Act will help workers obtain skills for 21st century jobs and
    cultivate a modern workforce that evolving American businesses
    truly need.
        But we still have more work to do. By reauthorizing the
    Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, we have an
    opportunity to help even more Americans, especially younger
    Americans, to enter the workforce with the tools and knowledge
    necessary to compete in the high-skilled, in-demand jobs of our
    economy--in short, to compete in a 21st century world and win.
    Last reauthorized in 2006, the law provides Federal support for
    State and local programs focused on preparing high school and
    community college students for technical careers.
        Now, unfortunately, many of these career and technical
    education programs have not kept pace with the changing
    workforce. In a report released by the Counsel for Chief State
    School Officers, education leaders explained that, quote,
    ``Career education in too many of our secondary schools
    reflects an outdated model that tolerates low expectations and
    is often misaligned with the evolving needs of the current
    labor market.''
        With more than 14 percent of young adults unemployed and
    the highest level of unfilled jobs since 2001, it's no wonder
    States have started to take action. My home State of Indiana,
    for example, is partnering with local businesses to develop a
    new high school curriculum that better meets the needs of local
    communities and ensures that students are prepared to enter
    high-skilled jobs right after earning their diploma.
        As Governor Mike Pence testified at a hearing here earlier
    this year, quote, ``For those students who are not bound for
    the traditional 4-year college, we must still ensure that they
    can thrive in future careers. And one way to do this is to
    again make career and technical education a priority,''
    unquote.
        By working with the private sector to develop resources for
    successful career and technical education programs, Indiana has
    made incredible gains over the last 2 years. The State has
    helped thousands of hard-working Hoosiers join the workforce
    and attracted more good-paying jobs for people in our
    communities. It's our hope that the success we've experienced
    in Indiana not only continues for our State, but is replicated
    across the country.
        The goal at the Federal level and what we are here to
    discuss today is how to ensure investment in these State and
    local efforts is paying off for students that we all aim to
    serve. To help reach that goal, we should consider reforms that
    encourage States to align high school and postsecondary course
    work with the needs of the workforce. This will require a look
    at existing Federal requirements, many of which, in my opinion,
    are duplicative and can hinder State and local efforts to
    development and implement their own successful programs.
        Helping Americans compete and succeed in today's workforce
    remains one of the committee's leading priorities, and today's
    discussion is an important part of that effort. I look forward
    to hearing from our panel of witnesses as we work to improve
    the Perkins Act and strengthen support for young Americans as
    they enter the workforce.
        And before I recognize my friend Ranking Member Fudge, I
    would like to note that one of our witnesses today, Dr. Douglas
    Major, is a resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma. On Saturday, the
    people of Stillwater and the surrounding communities were
    celebrating Oklahoma State University's homecoming when a
    driver crashed into the homecoming parade. This terrible
    tragedy injured more than 40 individuals and killed four
    others.
        Dr. Major, or behalf of this committee, I want to extend my
    deepest sympathies to you, the people of Stillwater, and the
    entire Oklahoma State University community. We pray for the
    recovery of those who remain hospitalized and in critical
    condition, and we lift up our thoughts and prayers to the
    victims and their families.
        [The statement of Chairman Rokita follows:]

    Prepared Statement of Hon. Todd Rokita, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early
                 Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education

        Young adults are entering a job market today that is vastly
    different from the one that existed a generation ago. Technological
    advances and the growth of a global economy have significantly changed
    the kinds of jobs available and the skills required to do them, making
    quality education and training vital ingredients to success in today's
    workplaces. This new reality has been painfully evident in the wake of
    the recent recession. We are more than six years into the so-called
    recovery, yet millions of Americans continue to struggle with finding a
    good-paying job. Meanwhile, industries critical to our economy - health
    care, engineering, and manufacturing, for example - have jobs to fill
    and not enough qualified applicants to fill them; a problem we have
    come to know as ``the skills gap.''
        Recognizing the urgent need to close the gap and put Americans back
    to work, Republicans and Democrats came together last Congress to fix a
    broken and outdated job training system. The bipartisan, bicameral
    effort resulted in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, a
    commonsense solution to modernize and improve the federal workforce
    development system. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will
    help workers attain skills for 21st century jobs and cultivate the
    modern workforce that evolving American businesses need.
        But we still have more work to do. By reauthorizing the Carl D.
    Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, we have an opportunity to
    help more Americans - especially younger Americans - enter the
    workforce with the tools and knowledge necessary to compete for the
    high-skilled, in-demand jobs in our economy. Last reauthorized in 2006,
    the law provides federal support for state and local programs focused
    on preparing high school and community college students for technical
    careers.
        Unfortunately, many of these career and technical education
    programs have not kept pace with the changing workforce. In a report
    released by the Council for Chief State School
        Officers, education leaders explained, ``Career education in too
    many of our secondary schools reflects an outdated model that tolerates
    low expectations and is often misaligned with the evolving needs of the
    current labor market.''
        example, is partnering with local businesses to develop a new high
    school curriculum that better meets the needs of local communities and
    ensures students are prepared to enter high-skilled jobs right after
    earning their diploma. As Governor Mike Pence testified at a hearing
    earlier this year, ``For those students who are not bound for the
    traditional four-year college, we must still ensure that they can
    thrive in future careers, and one way to do this is to again make
    career and technical education a priority.''
        By working with the private sector to develop resources for
    successful career and technical education programs, Indiana has made
    incredible gains over the last two years: The state has helped
    thousands of hardworking Hoosiers join the workforce and attracted more
    good-paying jobs for people in our communities. It is our hope the
    success we've experienced in Indiana can be replicated across the
    country.
        The goal at the federal level, and what we are here to discuss
    today, is to ensure our investment in these state and local efforts is
    paying off for the students we aim to serve. To help reach that goal,
    we should consider reforms that encourage states to align high school
    and postsecondary coursework with the needs of the workforce. This will
    require a look at existing federal requirements, many of which are
    duplicative and can hinder state and local efforts to develop and
    implement successful programs.
        Helping Americans compete and succeed in today's workforce remains
    one of the committee's leading priorities, and today's discussion is an
    important part of that effort. I look forward to hearing from our panel
    of witnesses as we work to improve the Perkins Actand strengthen
    support for young Americans as they enter the workforce.
        Before I recognize Ranking Member Fudge, I would like to note that
    one of our witnesses today, Dr. Douglas Major, is a resident of
    Stillwater, Oklahoma. On Saturday, the people of Stillwater and the
    surrounding communities were celebrating Oklahoma State University's
    homecoming, when a driver crashed into the homecoming parade. This
    terrible tragedy injured more than 40 individuals and killed four
    others.
        Dr. Major, on behalf of the committee, I want to extend my deepest
    sympathies to you, the people of Stillwater, and the entire Oklahoma
    State University community. We pray for the recovery of those who
    remain hospitalized and in critical condition, and we lift up in our
    thoughts and prayers the victims and their families. Thank you for
    being with us today.
                                     ______

        Mr. Major. Yes, sir. Thank you.
        Chairman Rokita. And thank you for being able to continue
    to be with us today.
        I now would like to recognize Ranking Member Fudge for her
    opening remarks.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank you all for being here today.
        Today we are going to examine the critical role of career
    and technical education programs that prepare our Nation's
    students for success in college and career. Many of these
    programs are funded through the Carl D. Perkins Career and
    Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006.
        According to the Georgetown University Center on Education
    and the Workforce, in the next 5 years 65 percent of all jobs
    in the United States will require training beyond high school.
    In my home State of Ohio career and technical education is
    available at every public high school. Other States should
    follow Ohio's lead so career and technical education is
    available at every high school across this Nation.
        The importance of CTE cannot be overstated. Its programs
    equip our Nation's students with the skills they need to
    succeed and in a rapidly evolving 21st century economy.
        Unfortunately, after harmful sequestration cuts, public
    funding for CTE is at historic lows. It is clear that we should
    not continue to cut funding for critical programs like CTE that
    engage students with an integrated curriculum of core academic
    content and real world, work-based relevance. Instead, we must
    support high-quality CTE programs.
        Currently, our Nation faces an unprecedented skills gap,
    and CTE programs are integral to closing that gap. We must do
    everything we can to maintain and strengthen these programs.
        For many years, the Perkins Act has supported the
    development of CTE programs that cultivate in-demand skills
    among secondary and postsecondary students. We must do more to
    spur innovation with the delivery of CTE to reward and
    replicate programs achieving positive outcomes for students and
    industry and to ensure CTE is positioned to drive economic
    success through better workforce alignment and increased
    collaboration.
        Reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical
    Education Act presents this committee with an opportunity to
    ensure that all students are equipped with the skills to
    succeed in a rapidly evolving 21st century economy.
        I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panel of
    witnesses and working with the majority to reauthorize the act.
    Further, I have received, Mr. Chairman, a letter from our
    colleague, Mr. Langevin, and he would like to enter it into the
    record.
        Chairman Rokita. Without objection.
        [The information follows:]

       [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much.
        And, Dr. Major, my condolences as well.
        I yield back.
        [The statement of Ms. Fudge follows:]

          Prepared Statement of Hon. Marcia L. Fudge, Ranking Member,
      Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education

        Good morning and thank you, Chairman Rokita.
        Today's hearing will examine the critical role of career and
    technical education programs in preparing our nation's students for
    success in college and career. Many of these programs are funded under
    the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of
    2006.
        According to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the
    Workforce, in the next five years, 65 percent of all jobs in the United
    States' economy will require training beyond high school. In my home
    state of Ohio, career and technical education (CTE) is available at
    every public high school.
        Other states should follow Ohio's lead, so career and technical
    education is available in every high school across the country. The
    importance of CTE cannot be overstated--its programs equip our nation's
    students with the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving
    21st century economy.
        Unfortunately, after harmful sequestration cuts, public funding for
    CTE is at historic lows. It is clear that we should not continue to cut
    funding for critical programs, like CTE, that engage students with an
    integrated curriculum of core academic content and real-world, work-
    based relevance.
        Instead, we must support high quality CTE programs.Currently, our
    nation faces an unprecedented skills gap, and CTE programs are integral
    to closing that gap. We must do everything we can to maintain and
    strengthen these programs.
        For many years, the Perkins Act has supported the development of
    CTE programs that cultivate in-demand skills among secondary and
    postsecondary students.
        We must do more to spur innovation in the delivery of CTE, to
    reward and replicate programs achieving positive outcomes for students
    and industry, and to ensure CTE is positioned to drive economic success
    through better workforce alignment and increased collaboration.
        Reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical
    Education Act presents this Committee with an opportunity to ensure
    that ALL students are equipped with the skills to succeed in a rapidly
    evolving 21st century economy.
        I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panel of
    witnesses, and
        working with the Majority to reauthorize the Perkins Act.
        Thank you and I yield back.
                                     ______

        Chairman Rokita. Thank you, Ranking Member Fudge.
        Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(c), all members will be
    permitted to submit written statements to be included in the
    permanent hearing record. And without objection, the hearing
    record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements
    and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to
    be submitted for the official hearing record.
        [The information follows:]Thompson

        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairman Rokita. I will now turn to the introduction of our
    distinguished witnesses.
        First off, Dr. Deneece Huftalin is the president of the
    Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah. SLCC is a
    comprehensive community college serving more than 60,000
    students, including approximately 29,000 CTE students. SLCC
    works with school districts in the Salt Lake City area to
    ensure CTE programs offered by those institutions put students
    on track for high-wage, high-demand jobs. As president, Dr.
    Huftalin works closely with industry leaders to strengthen
    SLCC's responsiveness to workforce needs.
        Welcome.
        Next, Dr. Douglas Major is the superintendent and CEO of
    Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The center
    provides customized education and training services for
    individuals, industries, and communities. The center partners
    with local business to align its curriculum with business needs
    and works with local high schools and 2-year colleges to ensure
    students may receive credit towards both a high school diploma
    and an associate's degree. Dr. Major is a past president of the
    Association for Career and Technical Education and has served
    on the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
        Welcome, again.
        Dr. Irelene Ricks is director of Diversity in Life Science
    Programs with Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular
    Biology here in Washington. Dr. Ricks oversees the Keystone
    Symposia's Fellows program, the Underrepresented Scholarship
    and Early-Career Investigator Travel Award programs, and
    additional mentoring programs that take place in connection
    with Keystone Symposia's life science research conferences. She
    has served as a grants administrator at Howard University and a
    policy analyst for the White House Office of Management and
    Budget.
        Welcome.
        Mr. Tim Johnson is director of government relations with
    the National Center for Construction Education and Research in
    Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The National Center for Construction
    Education and Research works with the construction industry to
    create standardized training and credentialing programs for the
    industry. In addition to his work with NCCER, Mr. Johnson has
    worked as the director of training for the Associated Builders
    & Contractors.
        Welcome to you.
        I will now ask our witnesses to stand and raise your right
    hand.
        [Witnesses sworn.]
        Chairman Rokita. Let the record reflect that the witnesses
    have answered all in the affirmative.
        And you may be seated.
        Before I recognize you to provide your testimony, let me
    briefly explain our lighting system. You each have 5 minutes to
    present your testimony. And just like the traffic lights, when
    1 minute is left the light will turn yellow. I'm not sure a
    traffic light stays yellow for a minute, but you get the point.
        I can say something about my spouse and traffic.
        When your time has expired, the light will turn red. At
    that point, I'll ask you to wrap up your remarks as best you
    are able. Members will each have 5 minutes to ask questions of
    you then.
        So we'll start with Dr. Huftalin. You are recognized for 5
    minutes.

      TESTIMONY OF DR. DENEECE G. HUFTALIN, PRESIDENT, SALT LAKE
                COMMUNITY COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

        Ms. Huftalin. Good morning, Chairman Rokita, Ranking Member
    Fudge, and members of the committee. Thank you for the
    opportunity to appear today to discuss this important issue. My
    name is Deneece Huftalin, and I serve as the president of Salt
    Lake Community College, having served at the college in various
    leadership capacities for over 23 years.
        Salt Lake Community College, as you heard, is an
    accredited, student-focused, comprehensive community college
    meeting the diversities of the Salt Lake Valley. Home to more
    than 60,000 students each year, Salt Lake Community College is
    the largest supplier of transfer students to Utah's 4-year
    institutions and a perennial top 10 college nationally for
    total associate's degrees awarded.
        Twenty percent of our students identify as minority, 10
    percent identify as having some disability, and last fall 64
    percent of our incoming students were first generation. We are
    also proud to serve 642 veteran students and have consistently
    been named as a top college for veterans by Military Times.
        The college is also Utah's leading provider of workforce
    development programs, with more than 28,000 students enrolled
    in CTE courses last year. With 211 certificate and degree
    programs, SLCC offers a breadth of workforce training
    opportunities for Salt Lake County residents.
        Career and technical education programs are designed to
    prepare students to enter the workforce immediately upon
    completion. Students can enter our college in noncredit or
    credit-bearing CTE programs and can earn short-term
    certificates as well as associate degrees. Our CTE programs
    range from traditional vocational programs, like welding and
    building construction, to newer programs, such as
    biomanufacturing and digital animation.
        The Carl D. Perkins Act is a vital source of financial
    support for Salt Lake Community College and for all community
    colleges. Over the last several years, as the recession
    weakened State investment toward higher education, Perkins
    funding was crucial to our ability to maintain and grow key CTE
    programs for our students at a time when our enrollment was
    rapidly increasing.
        For the 2016 fiscal year, Salt Lake Community College
    received approximately $1.25 million in Perkins funds. The
    college uses those funds to improve CTE offerings throughout
    the institution.
        Acquiring modern equipment is imperative for state-of-the-
    art CTE programs. These programs are costly to maintain and
    often require significant financial investment to ensure we
    have the latest technologies and equipment to train our
    students to enter today's ever-advancing and technical
    workplace.
        The college has used Perkins funds to purchase a wide range
    of items, such as dental hygiene x-ray view boxes, materials
    fatigue testers, and CNC machining equipment, all items we
    would be unable to purchase without the Perkins funding. In
    addition, Perkins funding has allowed us to ramp up our
    training in aviation maintenance avionics to meet industry
    demand and to maintain high-quality training in automotive
    diesel training and building construction, all critical
    industries which contribute to a healthy economy.
        While Perkins funding primarily supports advanced equipment
    needs, Perkins dollars also strengthen the essential student
    support services many of our students need to be successful. As
    we strive to increase our completion rates, Perkins funding is
    essential to enhance advising and disability resource center
    services.
        As I close my remarks, I'd like to share two brief examples
    of how we are using Perkins funding to meet the needs of both
    our employers and our students.
        A few months ago, the Boeing Company of Salt Lake, on
    behalf of several major aerospace manufacturing companies,
    approached the State and its educational partners about working
    collectively to provide more trained workers for the State's
    rapidly growing aerospace industry. Within a short timeframe,
    we created the Utah Aerospace Pathways Program. Under this
    pilot program, high school students enroll in a specialized set
    of courses in aerospace manufacturing.
        The students take one semester in high school, followed by
    a second semester at Salt Lake Community College or the Davis
    Applied Technology College. They then participate in a 48-hour
    paid internship with local aerospace partners, and upon
    successful completion of their coursework and internship will
    graduate with a certificate in aerospace manufacturing. The
    certificate allows students to begin a career immediately in
    the aerospace industry at a livable wage.
        The training provided through this program will center on
    machining, fabrication, and composite skills, all CTE fields
    that are increasingly in demand in aerospace and other advanced
    manufacturing industries. We are proud to be part of this
    collaborative effort which demonstrates best practices in CTE
    using local industry data to establish relevant, strong career
    programs between secondary, higher, and industry leaders.
        My second example of CTE at work relates to one of our
    recent graduates. As a single mother of two and a 14-year
    veteran of the United States Army, Darlene needed a career
    change. Working as a concrete contractor, she knew it would be
    a matter of time until the physical strain took its toll.
        Darlene enrolled in our Non-Destructive Testing program
    with hopes of coupling her critical thinking and analytical
    skills with her strong work ethic. Darlene completed in 2 years
    and received multiple employment offers promising exceptional
    benefits.
        Career and technical education has always been and will be
    the very core of our mission at Salt Lake Community College.
    The Perkins program is critical to our ability to provide these
    in-demand programs for industry and for thousands of students
    like Darlene.
        We appreciate your past support of the Perkins program and
    encourage your current support as this worthwhile program is
    considered for reauthorization. I would be happy to address any
    questions from the committee.
        [The testimony of Ms. Huftalin follows:]

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        Chairman Rokita. Thank you for your testimony.
        Dr. Major.

     TESTIMONY OF DR. DOUGLAS MAJOR, SUPERINTENDENT/CEO, MERIDIAN
                TECHNOLOGY CENTER, STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA

        Mr. Major. Thank you, Chairman Rokita, Ranking Member
    Fudge, and all members of the committee, for the invitation to
    be with you today to testify on behalf of Meridian Technology
    Center and career and technical education, or CTE, a topic that
    I'm very passionate about. Today I'm representing Meridian
    Technology Center in north-central Oklahoma, where I serve as
    superintendent. I'm also a past president of the Association
    for Career and Technical Education.
        Meridian Technology Center is a publicly funded CTE school.
    We offer opportunities in health, trade and industry,
    information technology, and STEM-related curriculum to a
    diverse range of both secondary and postsecondary students.
    This morning, I would like to take a few minutes to highlight
    some of the hallmarks of our quality CTE programs.
        First, our curriculum is based upon industry-recognized
    standards and is guided by employers, trade association
    representatives, and community leaders working with our
    teachers and administrators. This year, 294 individuals are
    involved in our advisory committees and give us in-depth input
    on curriculum as well as commit to helping our students
    throughout the year by providing ongoing support, job-shadowing
    opportunities, and on-the-job training placements.
        In addition, Meridian is also involved in statewide
    industry sector initiatives. For example, we participate in an
    aerospace consortium in which multiple technology centers
    contract with the liaison between our local schools and the
    aerospace employers in our State. This ensures that our program
    offerings meet the needs of employers and students beyond our
    geographic bounds.
        Second, we have high expectations for our students to
    demonstrate the technical, academic, and employability skills
    they need for success. Experience tells us that once engaged in
    technical curriculum, many students begin to recognize the
    importance of their academic classes. Many also begin to
    consider college as a viable pathway for the first time.
        We encourage our students to be prepared for entry into
    postsecondary opportunities, regardless of whether that is
    their immediate plan or not. Through our Citizenship Ready
    efforts, including working with career and technical student
    organizations, we help students learn the employability skills
    that businesses want in addition to their technical skills.
        Third, we focus on career exploration opportunities and
    career guidance and counseling. Students too often pass through
    the educational system without a plan for their future.
    Meridian uses some of our Perkins funds for career exploration
    and guidance to ensure that all students, even prior to their
    enrollment at Meridian, can access information that will help
    them make smart career decisions, an area that we would like to
    see expanded in the use of Perkins earlier in the educational
    cycle for more career exploration.
        Fourth, our coursework is relevant to students, and for
    many the opportunity to participate in CTE courses as a high
    school student is the hook that keeps them in school. Because
    our courses are typically project based and address real world
    problems, it's easy for students to find a purpose in the
    curriculum. For example, a student who aspires to be a labor
    and delivery nurse can apply their science, English, and math
    lessons in clinical rotations at their local hospital while
    still in high school.
        For the vast majority of secondary students, the
    opportunity to participate in applied learning provides them
    with the engagement for success and has resulted in higher
    graduation rates on our campus, 98.7 percent, compared to the
    rates of our partner schools, ranging from 75.5 percent to 95
    percent.
        Finally, we work to ensure that there are clearly defined
    pathways for our students, or Programs of Study as they are
    defined in Perkins, from secondary to postsecondary education.
    In many curriculum areas, Meridian works with degree-granting
    institutions to ensure that our programs of study aligns with
    theirs. Students who graduate from Meridian have the
    opportunity to receive higher learning credit at those
    institutions and may earn up to half of the credits they need
    for a 2-year degree while still in high school.
        Through my involvement in ACTE, I've had the opportunity to
    visit numerous other States and have discovered that my school
    is not unique. High-quality CTE programs are prevalent across
    this country and have success rates similar to ours. We need to
    shine a spotlight on these programs to make sure that all
    students are given the opportunity to learn in a way that meets
    their needs in an applied, hands-on learning environment.
        At the Federal level, the reauthorization of Perkins is
    Congress' opportunity to ensure that these learning experiences
    are available to every student nationwide. As Congress
    considers reauthorization, I would like to encourage emphasis
    on the high-quality elements that have made Meridian a success,
    but in a way that allows local flexibility for each educational
    institution to meet the needs of their students and their local
    economic environment. We also need more resources to support
    more students. CTE should be recognized as an integral part of
    a robust education system, and Perkins funds should be
    available to all schools that are willing to embrace quality.
        In closing, I would love to see CTE embraced as a way to
    engage students in a rigorous academic study and prepare them
    for postsecondary success, whether that takes them directly
    into a career or further study, and I strongly believe that
    this should be the new norm for our K-12 education system.
        Again, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony,
    and I look forward to your questions.
        [The testimony of Mr. Major follows:]

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        Chairman Rokita. Thank you, Doctor.
        Dr. Ricks, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

      TESTIMONY OF DR. IRELENE RICKS, DIRECTOR, DIVERSITY IN LIFE
     SCIENCE PROGRAMS, KEYSTONE SYMPOSIA ON MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR
                    BIOLOGY, SILVERTHORNE, COLORADO

        Ms. Ricks. Good morning, Chairman Rokita, Ranking Member
    Fudge, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the
    opportunity to submit testimony to the Committee on Education
    and the Workforce and to share my perspective on improving
    career and technical education to help students succeed in the
    workforce. Specifically, I will discuss the role of the
    importance of technical education in the development of career
    pathways in nontraditional fields for underrepresented groups.
        For more than 25 years I have served as an educator,
    advocate, and social science researcher. I currently serve as
    the director of Diversity in Life Sciences for Keystone
    Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology in Silverthorne,
    Colorado. My responsibility is to manage programs to serve
    underrepresented, or what we call UR students, postdoctoral
    Fellows, and early career scientists, including our flagship
    Fellows programs for UR assistant professors and research
    scientists. Many of the UR researchers who participate in our
    meetings and professional development programs come from public
    and private universities in States represented by members of
    this committee, including but not limited to institutions such
    as Emory, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, the
    University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
    and Michigan State University.
        I am also a member of the Board of Directors of the
    Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation, a public education and
    workforce foundation founded by and subsequently named after
    the former chairman of this distinguished committee.
        In the past, career and technical education, or CTE, was
    associated with vocational education as a training platform for
    low-income and immigrant populations who had little access to
    more highly paid jobs that require formal postsecondary
    education. And in the past, CTE teachers were fairly low-salary
    workers. But according to 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
    median salary for CTE teachers was $51,910, placing those
    teachers squarely into the American middle class.
        A 2014 U.S. Census report cited statistics that non-
    Hispanic Asians were most likely to hold a bachelor's degree or
    higher, followed by non-Hispanic whites. While 31 percent of
    Asians hold a bachelor's degree as their highest level of
    attainment and 18 percent hold an advanced degree, 20 percent
    of non-Hispanic whites hold a bachelor's degree and 12 percent
    an advanced degree.
        However, Blacks and Hispanics of any race were most
    concentrated at lower levels of educational attainment. Only 39
    percent of Blacks and Hispanics reported high school completion
    as their highest level of traditional educational attainment,
    and 13 percent of blacks and 28 percent of Hispanics or Latinos
    did not complete high school at all.
        When you total this, nearly 41 percent of minorities,
    African Americans and Latinos, don't complete high school.
    These are shocking numbers for any Nation, but for the most
    industrialized Nation in the world, an inability to ensure
    secondary educational completion signals a critical failure in
    the system. If students are unable to master basic skill sets--
    that's reading, writing, computation, and critical thinking--it
    is far more difficult for them to secure and sustain gainful
    employment.
        However, one of the advantages of CTE is its emphasis on
    technical training and soft skills development, such as
    interviewing techniques, job persistence, and interpersonal
    communication. Short-term education is a possible way to lift
    groups, including Latinos and African Americans with low levels
    of educational attainment, into better economic standing.
    Recent economic challenges have pushed many Americans towards
    short-term education options and this short-term education may
    pay off. CTE programs and the credentials that they offer
    provide access to higher wages, higher-demand jobs,
    particularly in emerging industry sectors. Almost 30 percent of
    people with less than an associate's degree, including licenses
    and certificates, earn more than many of the average bachelor
    degree recipients.
        It is a fact that many Americans do not attend college.
    However, as a birthright, every American expects to have a job
    that allows them to feed their families, have access to
    affordable health care, and live with dignity. Fortunately,
    although CTE was once stigmatized and relegated to the dungeons
    of education, it is now considered as a viable opportunity for
    both nontraditional and college-bound students. In fact, just
    this year, the United States Presidential Scholars Program
    established a new category of outstanding scholars in CTE.
        The resurgence of apprenticeship programs is a welcome
    addition to the CTE portfolio, and I am pleased that
    legislation such as the Apprenticeship and Jobs Training Act of
    2015 are gaining currency. I thank the members of the committee
    for the opportunity to share a realistic perspective of how CTE
    can serve as a transformative toolkit for the education and
    workforce development of U.S. current and future labor markets.
    I look forward to your questions.
        [The testimony of Ms. Ricks follows:]

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        Chairman Rokita. Thank you, Doctor.
        Mr. Johnson, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

    TESTIMONY OF MR. TIM JOHNSON, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS,
    NATIONAL CENTER FOR CONSTRUCTION EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, BATON
                            ROUGE, LOUISIANA

        Mr. Johnson. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
    Fudge, members of the subcommittee. My name is Tim Johnson, and
    I serve as senior director of governmental relations for the
    NCCER. Thank you for letting us participate in this hearing
    this morning.
        NCCER is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational foundation
    created in 1996 as the National Center for Construction
    Education and Research. It was developed with the support of
    more than 125 construction CEOs and various associations,
    including the Associated Builders & Contractors and the
    Associated General Contractors, and academic leaders, who
    united to revolutionize training for the construction industry.
        Sharing the common goal of developing a safe and productive
    workforce, these companies and their organizations created a
    standardized training and credentialing program for the
    commercial and industrial construction industries. This
    progressive program has evolved into curriculum in more than 70
    craft areas and a complete series of more than 70 assessments
    offered by 700 NCCER accredited sponsors in more than 5,000
    training locations across the United States. The NCCER programs
    and processes annually engage more than a half a million--
    500,000--individuals.
        Our Board of Trustees is a who's who of industry:
    ExxonMobile, Shell, DuPont, Bechtel, Fluor, Jacobs, Turner
    Industries, Performance Contractors, ISC Constructors. We also
    have board members from organizations--great organizations--
    like Skills USA and the Association for Career and Technical
    Education.
        NCCER develops standardized construction and maintenance
    curricula and assessments with portable credentials. These
    credentials are tracked through our registry and allow
    organizations and companies to confirm the qualifications of
    their craft professionals and/or check the qualifications of
    possible new hires. NCCER's registry also assists craft
    professionals by maintaining their records in a secure
    database.
        Our workforce development process of accreditation,
    instructor certification, standardized curriculum, registry,
    and assessment certification is a key component in the
    construction industry's workforce development efforts. NCCER
    also drives multiple initiatives to enhance career development
    and recruitment efforts for the industry, primarily through our
    Build Your Future campaign.
        NCCER is headquartered in Alachua, Florida, and is
    affiliated with the University of Florida's M.E. Rinker School
    of Construction Management. And I will tell you, as a proud LSU
    Tiger, that's sometimes difficult for me to say.
        The NCCER is a believer in and supporter of career and
    technical education. We believe that CTE is being transformed
    across the United States and great pockets of excellence have
    been created. Our challenge is to take these pockets of
    excellence and turn them into standard practices based on
    regional and specific needs.
        We must place additional focus on what I call the Four P's
    of CTE: Public policy and public perception. The focus of my
    remarks today will be the critically important link between
    industry-specific needs and the education and training that CTE
    programs provide.
        All of the NCCER programs and processes are driven directly
    by our industry partners. Our 70-plus craft curriculum titles
    are developed and regularly updated by construction industry
    subject matter experts. For example, our process identifies and
    brings together some of the premier electricians in the United
    States to originally develop and constantly update our
    electrical programs. We must ensure that what is being taught
    includes the very latest technology and practices in all of our
    programs. The NCCER does just that.
        We are working in other ways to more closely link industry
    and education. We have developed the Construction Career
    Pathways initiative to provide guidance, best practices, and
    practical tools that can be used by industry and education to
    connect. This initiative has created an online connection map
    that allows industry representatives and educators to connect
    locally. By providing a fillable form to list contact
    information and needs, local teachers can find contractors in
    their area that are willing to help with their programs through
    presentations, curriculum guidance, and/or career events.
        We also know that successful CTE programs must identify and
    employ skilled and capable instructors. I had the great
    pleasure of managing a large, privately funded craft training
    program for a number of years and I learned very quickly that
    instructors are the lifeblood of any training program. I say
    often that it is easier to turn a pipe fitter into a teacher
    than it is to turn a teacher into a pipe fitter. That means no
    disrespect for professional educators. I come from a family of
    them.
        The key to CTE is to find skilled professionals who have
    some communication skills and provide them with the
    instructional training and resources they need. The NCCER does
    this through our Instructor Certification Training Program and
    our Master Training Program, and these programs ensure that
    individuals who instruct in our accredited programs have the
    craft and teaching skills to bring learning to life for their
    students.
        In my home State of Louisiana, where more than $80 billion
    of industrial development expansion has been announced, the
    NCCER is helping to drive great collaboration between industry,
    the contractors who build and maintain their facilities,
    educational providers, State government agencies. The Louisiana
    Department of Education, K through 12, and the Louisiana
    Community and Technical College System are both accredited by
    the NCCER to provide our programs and processes.
        The NCCER has developed into one of the premier workforce
    development organizations in the United States, and that
    success can be directly linked to the fact that we are and have
    been from our inception specifically driven by industry needs.
        We look forward to your questions.
        [The testimony of Mr. Johnson follows:]

     [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairman Rokita. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I appreciate that.
        Let me start the subcommittee's questioning session by
    recognizing the chairman of the full Committee of Education and
    the Workforce, the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. John Kline.
        Mr. Kline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the courtesy and
    for the hearing.
        I thank the panel of witnesses. You're a terrific, terrific
    panel of witnesses.
        We have been grappling with how do we organize Federal
    efforts and how do we spend Federal money to good end, and what
    we've heard for a long time was that industry just couldn't
    find people with the skills that they needed, they just
    couldn't find them, and schools were providing skills that
    weren't needed. And so we went through quite a process here of
    looking at WIA, the Workforce Act, and we came up with WIOA. I
    don't know how we actually came up with that name, but we've
    got a new system.
        So, again, all of this was designed, if we're going to put
    taxpayer money into this, and if we're going to do something to
    help people who need jobs and to help industries who need
    workers, it ought to work, it ought to come together and not be
    working across purposes.
        So, Dr. Huftalin, you talked about partnering with local
    employers, and I think we're seeing evidence of that around the
    country. What kind of relationship do you have with these
    workforce development boards? Do you have partners there? Are
    you part of it? How is that working under the new rules?
        Ms. Huftalin. Let me share, one of our examples is the Utah
    Aerospace Pathways Program which I talked about. And I think
    part of the beauty of that program is that we literally have
    those industry partners at the table with us, not only for
    curriculum, but we're in the process of planning and building a
    brand new career and technical education building. That
    building is located in the industry area, so we're literally
    right across the street from Boeing and several other aerospace
    partners, with the idea that these industry leaders can not
    only help us with curriculum and state-of-the-art training and
    equipment needs, but can also provide internship opportunities
    for our students and job-shadowing partnerships, so that it's a
    very applicable training that they receive right there in that
    kind of industry corridor.
        So there's more than just curriculum that industry can be
    involved in. They can be involved in industry, partnerships,
    and on-the-job training. They've also been very, very helpful
    with us in the legislative session in trying to help our
    economic development. Our Governor understands the importance
    of this training opportunity for the Utah citizens.
        Mr. Kline. That's a good report. I like to hear that. But
    what about the workforce development boards? You go to a one-
    stop, Salt Lake probably has one, are you connected with that?
    Somebody goes in there, they are out of a job, they are looking
    for help, how do they get connected to you, Salt Lake Community
    College?
        Ms. Huftalin. So we work with our division of workforce
    services quite carefully. Is that the work board that you're
    referring to?
        Mr. Kline. Yes.
        Ms. Huftalin. We work with them quite carefully in terms of
    grants that they offer us to develop particular skill-based
    programs that they are seeing industry needing, and they've got
    underemployed or unemployed workers that need those jobs. They
    work with us to provide funding to ramp up specific state-of-
    the-art curriculum that those students can then benefit from
    and get into the workforce.
        So there's a strong connection between what our local
    industry leaders are saying they need help with, what our
    division of workforce services is funding, and the training
    that we provide at Salt Lake Community College.
        Mr. Kline. Great. Thank you.
        Dr. Major, basically the same question. What kind of
    partnerships does Meridian Tech have with the local workforce
    development agencies?
        Mr. Major. We have a very close working relationship with
    the workforce development board in our area and have a
    representative of our school that serves on the board. As a
    result, we're able to provide information to them about the
    opportunities for students at Meridian Technology Center, and
    we have several students who are funded through the workforce
    funds to attend school on our campus.
        Mr. Kline. Okay. Thank you very much.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentleman.
        Ranking Member Scott, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
    opportunity.
        And I want to thank our witnesses.
        I want to follow up with one of the questions the chairman
    mentioned. Ms. Huftalin, in working with the various agencies,
    how do you make sure that you're training the right number of
    people, not too many and not too few?
        Ms. Huftalin. Part of what we've looked at with several
    different industry sectors is job projections, and within those
    job projections, jobs that are going to help our students get a
    livable wage or above a livable wage. So that we really target
    particular clusters, what is the job necessary, and how many of
    those are likely to be developing in the next projected, let's
    say, 2 to 3 years.
        So for instance, in our new career and technical education
    building that we are creating, we've looked at about, maybe at
    the 28 programs that we're going to offer there, which are the
    ones that show a growing need, which are the ones that our
    industry, local industry leaders are saying they cannot fill.
    And we work with them to try to increase wages when necessary
    to make them a popular and livable wage, but we also then work
    with our faculty to develop the curriculum to allow the
    students to take up opportunities of that training.
        Mr. Scott. Thank you.
        Dr. Ricks, career training used to be known as vocational
    education, which traditionally was a dumping ground for people
    that weren't going to make it academically. Can you say a word
    about how important it is that the career training include the
    basics, so if a person wants to get into career training and
    decides, ``Well, maybe I want to go to a 4-year liberal arts
    college after all,'' that they are not left behind?
        Ms. Ricks. It's actually quite critical that the basic
    skills are adopted in the CTE programs, because one of the
    things that employers are finding, and it doesn't matter what
    industry, including the biomedical sciences, is that students
    are coming into the workforce very poorly prepared to write, to
    think critically, to be creative in the ways that they approach
    a problem.
        So CTE curricula typically offer those kinds of
    opportunities for their participants. So they build in on-the-
    job training, so they give them scenarios, they set up case
    studies for them to learn how to learn on the job. And I think
    that that is critical. I think it's critical for everyone.
        Even in the industry that I've been working in for the last
    20 years, with biomedical science researchers, those skills are
    still very important for them. Whether they're going to NIH,
    whether they're going to the National Science Foundation for
    research grants or to conduct research, those are critical
    stills, and CTE provides those skill sets.
        And I think we have typically sort of divided students
    based on who's going to college, who's not going to college,
    what kinds of skill sets are needed. And that's really an
    artificial construction, because everyone needs the same skill
    sets. Everyone needs to know how to think, how to read, and how
    to write well.
        Mr. Scott. And so if someone gets in a career track, it's
    never too late to switch back to an academic track and go to
    college.
        Mr. Johnson, did you want to comment?
        Mr. Johnson. I did. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Because I think
    that's part of this public perception that we have to deal with
    in CTE. We used to think that, you know, if you're bright you
    go to the 4-year university, if you're not you go into some
    other track. I will tell you that a good layout pipe fitter
    will do as many mathematic calculations in his or her workdays
    as an engineer will do, and they are no less critically
    important.
        And so we've got to change that perception, and the CTE
    programs that provide those basic skills have to do it.
        Two things. One is that we use terminology often as well.
    We refer to CTE track programs as middle-skill jobs. I can tell
    you that a highly trained combination welder does not have
    middle skills. That individual has very high-level skills. And
    so just the words that we use sometimes we need to think about
    in terms of the perception of career and technical education.
        Mr. Scott. Thank you.
        Dr. Major, you alluded to the 2-plus-2 program. Can you say
    a word about that? I think you have commented on the others. I
    don't have much time left, so you can take the rest commenting
    on those two.
        Mr. Major. Okay. I think too often students who enroll in
    career and technical education are viewed as not going to
    college. What we find is that many of our students through
    career and technical education decide that college is the best
    path for them.
        And so we try to make sure that our students before they
    leave us are ready for that, and so we not only expect them to
    learn the technical skills, but we also focus on numeracy,
    literacy, and critical thinking.
        Most students who enter into a community college in
    Oklahoma are 27 years old, which means that they didn't go
    there directly from high school, but at some point they made
    the decision to go back. Career and technical education needs
    to prepare those students for when they are ready to go into a
    college pathway.
        Chairman Rokita. Thank you. The gentleman's time has
    expired.
        The gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized for 5
    minutes.
        Mr. Thompson. Chairman, thank you. Thank you for this
    hearing. Career and technical education is obviously something
    I'm very passionate about, and I happen to believe that of the
    domestic issues that this Nation is facing economically, a
    robust investment in career and technical education training is
    a solution to many of those problems.
        Thanks to the members of the panel for your experience,
    your passion, and your leadership. On behalf of the Career and
    Technical Education Caucus, which I co-chair with my good
    friend, Jim Langevin, who submitted something for the record
    already, despite some difficult economic times around here,
    we've actually--and I think it is an acknowledgement of the
    importance of career and technical education--we've actually
    gotten a plus-up. You know, not much, $52 million, it's kind of
    minimal in the scale of a $1.3 billion program, but any kind of
    a plus-up is a sign of recognition of importance, I think.
        Dr. Major, we all know it's important to ensure that
    parents and students are receiving the necessary information
    about the vast opportunities that career and technical
    education can provide. In your testimony, your written and your
    verbal testimony, you talked about more flexibility, the use of
    Perkins money earlier in education to pursue career
    exploration. Can you put a little more meat on the bone of
    that, just a couple of examples of what and when do you think
    would be effective?
        Mr. Major. I would like to see more flexibility for us to
    use Perkins funds in the middle school grades with younger
    children to help expose them to career options so that they can
    determine the best educational pathway to get to their chosen
    profession, recognizing at that time in their life it's
    probably going to be more an affinity toward an industry sector
    rather than a specific career.
        Too often children in the middle school aren't able to see
    how that formal education will affect their future. And so if
    we have the flexibility to provide more career exploration,
    more career guidance in those middle school levels, I think in
    the long run it will help with our high school success and high
    school graduation rates.
        Mr. Thompson. I couldn't agree more. Long before I came to
    Congress, I worked on workforce development issues, and it
    amazed me that that time period of middle school was where we
    really need to zero in on, as kids are exposed to so much more
    today.
        Dr. Ricks, you had noted that, and I'm going to quote you
    from your testimony, ``Fortunately, although career and
    technical education was once stigmatized and relegated to the
    dungeon of education, it is now considered as a viable
    opportunity for both traditional and college-bound students.''
    I certainly agree with you on that, I'm excited about that, but
    I don't think we've gotten everybody yet.
        So within your research, have you really looked at that--
    because I feel that there's still a stigma out there among
    parents, and parents are the leading--I mean, they're steering
    the decision making, they're exposing the kids to
    opportunities. Has your research found anything there and
    anything that would be helpful for turning that stigma around?
        Ms. Ricks. Well, one of the things that I've discovered is
    that guidance counselors need to be approached. And I think
    that we need to look at it in a collaborative way with parents
    and guidance counselors working together to talk about CTE and
    the benefits of CTE and looking at the professional association
    of guidance counselors. I attended a meeting, I think it was
    last year, here in Washington, and they were talking about the
    role of guidance counselors and steering students away from CTE
    and how they need to be brought into the fold. Because
    surprisingly, many guidance counselors aren't that aware of
    CTE. They still call it vocational education. They still see it
    as a two-tiered system. And so they tell their college-bound
    students not to go into CTE coursework.
        So I think that there can be more effort made in the
    school.
        Mr. Thompson. With the guidance counselors?
        Ms. Ricks. Absolutely.
        Mr. Thompson. Now, we have language within the Student
    Success Act that, hopefully, will be going to conference soon
    with ESEA that really looks at parental engagement centers. Is
    there anything the panel, any of the panelists have anything in
    terms of thoughts in terms of how do we get to the parents and
    help change that stigma, that these are great paying jobs, they
    are low debt coming out? I mean, the facts are all on our side,
    I think, we just need to communicate.
        Dr. Huftalin, you have 30 seconds.
        Ms. Huftalin. Congressman, If I can just share, two things
    I would say. One of the things is marketing around the wages. I
    think parents are very, very unaware of the wage data
    associated with many of our career and technical education
    fields and the kind of career their son or daughter can have in
    that career. So wage data I think is critical.
        The other thing I would share is I had no idea what
    happened behind the doors of the Boeing plant. And we went on a
    tour of that Boeing plant and watched them make that horizontal
    fin. And I am telling you, if we had sixth and seventh graders
    and their parents walking that floor, that would shift
    dramatically, because it is impressive, it is high engineering,
    it's high technology, and it's very, very exciting.
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired.
        Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentleman.
        Ranking Member Fudge, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        And, again, thank you for your testimony.
        Dr. Ricks, you stated that 41 percent of minorities do not
    complete high school, which in my opinion highlights the
    disproportionately negative effect education policies have had
    on Black and Hispanic students.
        The racial divide is compounded when funding streams for
    hands-on, short-term education and career training are cut. We
    do know that funding for Perkins has declined by 24 percent
    since 1998, and in particular because of sequestration over the
    last few years.
        Can you tell me how these cuts have affected
    underrepresented students in CTE programs?
        Ms. Ricks. The underrepresented students, because of some
    of these challenges with the budgets and with the lack of
    parental involvement and guidance from the guidance counselors,
    has resulted in fewer students of color participating in CTE,
    and that's a problem. And I think that we need to rebrand CTE.
    We have tried to change the name CTE rather than voc ed.
        So I think that we need to consider creative ways. And I go
    back to what I said earlier about the role of CTE in
    stimulating creativity and critical thinking in our students.
    We need to do the same here in Washington and in all the other
    policy institutes that look at education in a very serious way.
        And I think what has happened with underrepresented
    students is that they become even more discouraged. And one of
    the things that we study as social science researchers in
    education is looking at the emphasis on role modeling. The less
    likely you are to see yourself in a particular role, the less
    likely you are to participate in that role. And so that's
    what's happened.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Johnson, can you tell me about the availability of CTE
    instructors and what we can do to help support craft
    professionals to become CTE teachers?
        Mr. Johnson. Well, I think there are probably a number of
    things, Ms. Fudge. I will tell you that if you look in the
    industrial sector, particularly along the Gulf Coast, one of
    the major struggles that we have is that there is so much
    expansion going on and there is such availability for high-wage
    jobs that many instructors who may have retired and gone into
    CTE have decided to go back on their tools because they can
    simply make more money.
        And so a part of it is helping to identify those existing
    craft professionals, those retired craft professionals who
    might be willing to be instructors. But certainly being able to
    pay them at a rate that makes it attractive to them is a
    critical part of that effort. We have programs in place to
    begin to help us identify those individuals who might be
    interested in becoming instructors now, but certainly the pay
    rate is one of the issues that we face.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much.
        Dr. Major, can you provide us some insight as to how CTE
    programs can more effectively reach secondary school students
    and engage them in a career path?
        Mr. Major. I think one of the issues we face goes back to
    the guidance and the perception of who CTE is for. And it is
    true that at one point in time CTE was seen as the educational
    system in which students who weren't going to college could be
    successful. And that is true, but more and more students are
    leaving our school and going into a college pathway.
        Like the terminology of middle skills, I think we need to
    reshape postsecondary education and be more cognizant of their
    many forms of postsecondary education, one of which is a
    colleague degree pathway. But through apprenticeship, through
    licensed trades, through on-the-job training, postsecondary
    education is a successful route to entry and a shorter route to
    entry for many lucrative careers other than college.
        Ms. Fudge. I certainly hope you all are successful, because
    the young people I know don't know how to do anything with
    their hands. So I'm hopeful that we'll still have electricians
    and plumbers and brick masons and all those people.
        And with the last about 40 seconds that I have, Dr.
    Huftalin, you have seemingly been very successful at trying to
    predict the future and know what job skills are going to be
    needed. How do you do that?
        Ms. Huftalin. I'm not sure I can take that credit one bit.
    I do know that we're trying diligently in Utah to get better
    relationships with our job forecasters, with the folks that
    look at the kind of tomography of the State, and to use that in
    a much more essential way.
        I don't think we've mastered that yet, honestly, but I do
    think we're being very clear about looking at projected jobs
    that are going to be available and then making adjustments to
    meet that demand. That is just data that we've had for a long
    time, but we haven't shared it regularly. I think our
    relationship building and our collaboration is stronger than
    ever, and that needs to continue to improve.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you. I yield back.
        Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentlewoman.
        The gentleman from Georgia is recognized for 5 minutes, Mr.
    Carter.
        Mr. Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank all of you for being here. This is very
    informative, and I appreciate it very much.
        Dr. Huftalin, there's a technical college in my district,
    Coastal Pines Technical College. It operates a program that's
    called Move on When Ready. It allows students, high school
    students, to actually take classes at the technical college to
    get credit for the classes for a college degree as well as for
    their high school degree. It comes at no cost, not even the
    books are charged for. And it's very well attended, very well
    participated in. Is this the type of program that you see
    implemented anywhere else?
        Ms. Huftalin. We have a very similar program in the State
    of Utah called Concurrent Enrollment. And so students can in
    their high school journey take both general education and/or
    CTE classes as a high school student and earn high school
    credit and college credit simultaneously. And that's very well
    adopted across the State of Utah.
        We look at curriculum carefully. And I think we've been
    much more willing to kind of look at the pathways, and where
    there are no pathways pull back on certain courses, and where
    there could be stronger pathways be very intentional about
    putting additional courses in the high school to allow students
    to articulate into an associate's degree when they come to the
    college.
        Mr. Carter. Great.
        Let me ask you something. The way that these funds are
    being appropriated right now is through a formula system. If we
    were to go to some type of competitive grant system, do you see
    that working? Do you think there would be problems with it?
        Dr. Major, I see you.
        Mr. Major. I think if you move away from a formula process
    to a grant, you're going to remove the opportunity for many
    students in the United States to have access to career and
    technical education. The Perkins Act originally was that act
    that allowed access by all students to career and technical
    education. If you go to a competitive grant, you're going to
    have some that have access and some that don't have access.
        Mr. Carter. Anyone on the panel disagree with that?
        Do you think that a combination of both might work? I mean,
    obviously, if we have a program like this Move on When Ready
    that we're very proud of in the State of Georgia and that has
    proven to be very beneficial we would want extra funding for
    something like that.
        Mr. Major. And I think history will tell us that we've the
    basic grant, but then we've also had some additional moneys for
    innovative programs. And I think that those innovative funds
    have started some really great movements in the United States
    around career and technical education. So I think if we do
    something competitive, it needs to be in addition to the basic
    grants.
        Mr. Carter. Okay.
        Mr. Johnson, you mentioned wage disparity in the words that
    we use. I'm always reminded, when I was in the Georgia State
    Senate I chaired higher education, and one of the things that
    we always stressed, technical colleges. And we changed it to
    technical colleges.
        Is that the case with all of you? Is it now a college or is
    it still technical school.
        Mr. Johnson. I think that's becoming more universal, the
    technical college. But we think about that as well. We talk
    about at the technical college there are four credit courses
    and, quote, ``noncredit courses,'' right? And so if I'm in an
    entry-based certification and I'm going through the process and
    you tell me that my course is not for credit, what kind of
    imagine does that display?
        So those are the kind of terms, the kind of words that I
    think we need to think very carefully about and look to change
    how we characterize career and technical education. Changing
    from, you know, vo-tech to technical college is a very critical
    thing that we do, but we must continue that process so that we
    look at it differently.
        Mr. Carter. You know, again, one of my favorite stories
    about the wage disparity is about the doctor who calls the
    plumber in on the weekend for an emergency. And you've heard
    this.
        Mr. Johnson. Yeah.
        Mr. Carter. Anyway, the plumber's working on the plumbing.
    The doctor looks down and says, ``How much are you making per
    hour for this emergency call?'' He says, ``I'm making $150 per
    hour.'' And the doctor says, ``Wow. I'm a doctor and I don't
    make that much.'' And the plumber looks up and says, ``Yeah, I
    know, I didn't make that much when I was a doctor either.''
        Mr. Johnson. Exactly right.
        Mr. Carter. But it is true. The last thing is, are you
    working with the businesses? One of the things that we have a
    problem with in Georgia that we're really concentrating on is
    identifying those jobs that are going to be needed and trying
    to fill that void, if you will, in making sure those personnel
    are available. For instance, we have two nuclear plants that
    are being built right now, and we're having welders. And we
    want to make sure those welders are available, that we're not
    having to go out of State to get them, that we can provide them
    there in State.
        Mr. Johnson. We work very closely with industry through the
    NCCER and most of our programs also do. It's critical to make
    that connection. If we think about projecting jobs that will be
    available, as you are doing in your State, we've got to get
    those employers engaged at a high level.
        I will tell you that I've been in the workforce development
    game for over 20 years now, and I think we've done more to
    change perception and more to connect employers with education
    over the last 3 or 4 years than we did in the previous 15 or 16
    that I was involved in it.
        So I think we're headed in the right direction. There's
    more work to do, but any time we can link an employer directly
    to a--
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired. I thank
    the gentleman for his time.
        Ms. Bonamici, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank you to the witness. This is such an important
    conversation. As, we know that the CTE courses can help prepare
    students to succeed in careers, but also on college campuses,
    as we've discussed, and help them be prepared.
        But that isn't all. The students also learn the soft skills
    as well as the hard skills, and I know Dr. Ricks mentioned
    this, like teamwork and the ability to communicate. And that
    serves them throughout their lives, regardless of where they
    end up in a career.
        The good-quality CTE classes accomplish this while also
    preparing students to do well academically in postsecondary
    education as well as the workforce. And I really want to
    emphasize, because we've been talking a lot about how we
    message this and what's happened in our conversations, the
    ``E'' part of CTE stands for education. So we're not trying to
    convert education into job training. This is about educating
    students to be prepared for whichever path that they take.
        And I want to mention, we're talking about success stories,
    I have several from the district I represent. Sherwood High
    School in Sherwood, Oregon, they have an all-girls welding
    class, fills up every year. They also have a program where the
    students build a house. They take architecture classes,
    interior design, environmental science and construction, and
    then they build and sell the house. It's a great experience.
    And they have a mobile fab lab where the teacher has an RV and
    he drives around, not just to other schools, but to other
    districts to help inform their teachers about what they can do.
        But the tremendous benefit, and I've seen and talked with
    the students who participate in these classes, that they get
    inherent benefit from making something tangible. And those
    lessons are really important. Newberg High School in my
    district has a whole range, from culinary classes to CAD labs.
    And when I was out there, they really emphasized the importance
    of the Perkins funding. Yamhill Carlton High School, which is
    down in wine country, not only do they have a manufacturing
    class with a local polymer manufacturer, they have also started
    a viticulture class at their high school.
        And then there are courses that continue at the community
    college. Portland Community College has one of the Nation's top
    job training programs as recognized by the White House, where
    they use an innovative approach to help unemployed workers
    complete short-term stackable credits that give them skills.
        So those are just a few of the examples.
        And Dr. Ricks, I mentioned the all-girls welding class at
    Sherwood High School and their homebuilding class. Now, that
    district has about 5,000 students. This beautiful pen you might
    have noticed because we're in a small room today, that wood pen
    was made by a student at Gaston. They have 564 students total
    in their entire school district. When their teacher gave me
    this pen, he talked about what this means to the students to
    actually make things and how engaged they are. Warrenton High
    School, over on the Oregon coast, has only 285 students, but
    they run a fish hatchery at their school and have an
    aquaculture program.
        So, Dr. Ricks, how do you bring high quality academic
    programs, especially to rural and underrepresented communities?
    And I share your concern about--and Dr. Major and all of you on
    the panel--about what a shift to competitive funding would
    mean. But how do you really bring those programs around the
    country to rural and underrepresented students as well as in
    large urban districts?
        Ms. Ricks. Well, it's not easy. One of the things that I've
    done in the past, I've worked in different organizations that
    have tried to especially reach out to rural and
    underrepresented communities. When I was at NOAA, I was on a
    contract with the Office of Education, and they have a mandate
    to try to do that. When you talked about the aquaculture and
    fisheries, I thought about NOAA and how they've been doing that
    for some time with K through 12 students.
        And there's a number of activities that the different
    Federal agencies have been engaged in looking at how to build
    interest, especially because I come from, you know, the STEM
    background, looking at how science, technology, engineering,
    and math can be integrated to grow interest in--
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt. I want to
    get another quick question in.
        Ms. Ricks. Oh, okay.
        Ms. Bonamici. I want to talk about STEAM, integrating art
    and design into STEM.
        Dr. Major, you really talked about the students who
    consider college as a viable pathway once they get into a CTE
    course or program. Can you discuss what an effective CTE
    program can do to make sure that students do receive a well-
    rounded education that includes language, art, science, math,
    other subjects?
        Mr. Major. I think we made to make sure that our CTE
    programs incorporate the use of high-level academics. Through
    project-based learning students have to do research. The house
    that they build, they have to do research, they have to be able
    to read technical documents. So we need to encourage their
    success in those academic studies in addition to the career and
    technical education studies. And that comes as a part of the
    definition of a high-quality CTE program. And we talk about
    accessibility, but we also need to hold programs accountable,
    and accountable for offering high-quality programs to the
    students.
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I see my time has expired. Thank
    you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentlelady.
        The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Grothman. Okay. First of all, I'd like to make a
    comment. I can tell you, I'm 60 years old, I think in my
    lifetime I have never felt that people look down on, or I think
    Congressman Scott used the word as tech schools as being a
    dumping ground. There may be some segments of society where
    they are bigoted or, you know, snobbish people look down on
    people who didn't go to a 4-year degree. I think among me and
    my peer group, when I was coming up we never had that idea. And
    I think it is unfortunate that we had people here today use
    those terms.
        But a question for I guess any one of the four of you. One
    thing that I find in my area is that sometimes when I talk to
    people who run the local tech schools they talk about people
    with literally a college degree going back. I know Dr. Major
    talked about people being an average age 27. I'd like to you to
    comment as how often you do see people who have a full 4-year
    degree and eventually realize that they got something without a
    great deal of value and come back.
        Mr. Major. I'd like to respond to that. We're seeing more
    and more students coming back in our postsecondary programs who
    do possess a degree. And what we're finding is that the rate of
    change in industry is so significant now that the jobs that
    they prepared for when they were in high school don't exist.
    And no matter what we do, we need to continue to learn. And
    there are specialized skill sets that we're able to offer
    through our work with business and industry that allow adult
    students to come back regardless of whether they have a degree.
        We recently worked to help recruit an aerospace
    manufacturer to our district. When they arrived in our
    community they needed employees with a diverse set of skills
    and we weren't able to identify those. But working with that
    company, we put specific educational programs in, focused on
    their job descriptions, so that students could come back and
    gain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful for
    that particular company.
        Ms. Huftalin. Congressman, I'll just share that we are also
    seeing a trend in students that have a bachelor's degree or
    beyond and then are retraining later in life and coming back
    and finding a new field that they never even knew existed. I
    can tell you that our dean of the School of Technical
    Specialties is with us this morning. His son is a great example
    of that. Bachelor's degree in history, returned to our Non-
    Destructive Testing program 2 years ago, and is now very well
    employed in the non-destructive testing field, a field he
    didn't even know about as an undergraduate when he attended the
    University of Utah.
        Mr. Johnson. I would just say quickly too, Louisiana
    Community and Technical College System is seeing that in a big
    way. Process technicians are in huge demand for industry in
    Louisiana. That's a 2-year associate degree generally. They
    created a program within the Community and Technical College
    System that says that if you have a bachelor's degree you can
    now come back and get that associate degree in 16 weeks because
    of the other academic accomplishments that you have. So
    innovative programs like that that allow those bachelor degree
    individuals to come back and get their training quickly.
        Mr. Grothman. Okay. One more question. One thing that
    people always are concerned about, or at least I feel
    contributes to the high cost of education today, is the number
    of nonteaching personnel hired by all institutions of higher
    learning.
        One of the things I wondered about, I notice--well, Dr.
    Ricks, a couple comments on your testimony. First of all, you
    say we can no longer afford to educate only an elite class of
    citizens. That's kind of a damning statement about America and
    I don't think that's been true throughout my lifetime. Do you
    really believe in America--or when was the last time you really
    feel we only educated an elite class of citizens in this
    country?
        Ms. Ricks. Well, when you look at the numbers of the
    students who actually graduate from college, it's typically, in
    the Department of Education NSF report, it's typically students
    who can afford to go. And because income has been a barrier, it
    has become--and it hasn't always been--but it has definitely
    become a system that discourages students who cannot afford to
    go. They cannot afford to persist beyond their first year of
    undergraduate education. And I'm talking about students who did
    not come in with merit-based or need-based scholarships, just
    students who are just, you know, your average student trying to
    get into college and graduate. So those numbers are--
        Mr. Grothman. Let me cut you off. You're saying something I
    didn't expect. In other words, you're saying right now it's
    harder to get through college if you're kind of middle class as
    opposed to the people who qualify for the Pell Grants? Is that
    what you're telling us?
        Ms. Ricks. Not in--well, there's two different issues. You
    have the students who come in need-based, and then you have the
    students who don't anticipate the need that they will require
    to graduate. And so there's a slight difference there. So you
    can have students that have received financial aid that still
    there's a gap, there's a huge gap between what they receive and
    what they need in order to fully participate in the college
    experience. And I'm not even talking extracurricular. I'm
    talking about when--
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired.
        Thank the gentleman.
        Ms. Ricks. Sorry. I talk too much. Sorry.
        Chairman Rokita. Mr. Takano, you're recognized for 5
    minutes.
        Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        I want to talk about this idea of the people coming back at
    age 27. I just spoke to someone today who grew up in a
    household with a mother, a single-parent household. The mother
    was on food stamps. He worked as a box boy full time. Could
    have qualified for the Pell Grant, all these things early on,
    but worked his way up to management in this food supermarket
    area. Hard-working person, working full time, had a kid.
    Decided that he couldn't stay up all night dispatching the
    trucks in the morning, sleeping all day, and being a good dad.
    So he wanted to back and get his education. So he never used
    the Pell Grants, worked his way up. You know, did all the
    things. I mean, he was impelled.
        I'm wondering how many of those kind of folks do we have
    coming--you know, they don't even have their first bachelor's,
    but they're going to come back and try to earn their first
    degree. But for him to leave the workforce, really, we know
    that going to school full time is probably a good idea for many
    people in order to complete their programs.
        I mean, how big a segment of the society is this, and do we
    need to do something about it?
        Ms. Huftalin. Congressman, I will share with you that one
    of the difficulties we have at the community college is that
    many of our students work. Seventy-four percent of our students
    work while they're attending. And of those 74 percent, 40
    percent work full time. So they're working full time and
    they're trying to come to school. And very often they choose,
    because of the realities of that schedule, to go at a part-time
    load, take 9 credit hours.
        Mr. Takano. Well, here's the thing, though. I'm wondering
    how this person got this huge debt, right? I mean, he would
    have qualified in the front end if we had gotten him in a place
    to go to community college and then transfer or even just go
    from community college into the workforce. But he would have
    qualified for those all those grants, but he worked and worked
    and worked and then worked himself up to a level, then decided
    to go back to school, decided, oh, in order to do this I got to
    take all of these loans to be able to go to school full time.
        So the choice is that you work part time, maybe not be as
    effective in the school as a student. Or at that point in your
    life you don't qualify for anything because your income was too
    high, right? But his beginnings were, you know, very, very
    humble.
        So I'm wondering, I have to imagine there's a lot of people
    in our country that are examples of that. You know, worked
    really hard, his mother was on food stamps, needed to get a
    job, went through various levels of employment and got fairly
    well paid. But then in order to go and get an education, to get
    a different track, there's nothing for him. I mean, he's either
    got a choice of working full time and going to school in a job
    that he's up all night, he really can't go to--I mean, this is
    a very specific example.
        But I'm thinking there's a lot of people in that 27-year-
    old, 28-year-old category that may have already gotten a
    degree, but many of them who haven't even gotten the first
    degree, but we don't have an affordable way for them to go back
    and get training or CTE education. What are your thoughts on
    that?
        Ms. Huftalin. I guess my response to that would be that
    that's part of the reason why as a community college we keep
    our tuition and fees as low as possible. I mean, literally as a
    returning adult, even though you may not qualify for Pell, you
    can attend--you can go for a year of college with us full time
    and only pay $6,000.
        Mr. Takano. Let me switch tracks a little bit. Let's talk
    about what it means to be college and career ready and how we
    can improve that transition into a training, you know, either a
    CTE program or a transfer program. I noticed that you have a
    lot of concurrent enrollment programs, you have early college.
        What could the Federal Government do to help make this--I
    just spoke to a superintendent who's reduced his remediation
    rate by 50 percent. What can we do to help you all do things
    like that, reduce your remediation rate, get the community
    colleges to communicate more with the high schools and work
    together?
        Ms. Huftalin. I think part of, for my response, it would be
    that continue to hold us responsible for having secondary
    partners very, very deliberately and very intentionally. We
    have to be able to work with our superintendents and our
    districts and the faculty there have to work with our faculty
    to identify what are the math competencies necessary to move
    without any kind of problem--
        Mr. Takano. So high school faculty knows, has a clear idea
    what they need to do to get the kids prepared--
        Ms. Huftalin. Exactly.
        Mr. Takano.--for both career and--
        Ms. Huftalin. And the writing faculty and the communication
    faculty.
        Mr. Johnson. SkillsUSA students graduate at a 95 percent
    rate. Those individuals who are involved in SkillsUSA programs,
    those CTE programs across the United States, their graduation
    rates are up at 95 percent. It's a proven winner.
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired. I thank
    the gentleman.
        The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Brat. Thank you, Chairman.
        Thank you all for what you do. I just met with all my
    career and technical folks a couple weeks back. I've been
    working in this Virginia State Senate with some of the leaders
    there for 7 or 8 years. I was a college professor for 20 years.
    Went to seminary before that. I don't know what went wrong. So
    I've been in education my whole life.
        Congresswoman Bonamici says, ``I know what you're going to
    ask every time,'' because I ask the same question every time
    one way or the other. But my challenge to you, you're all doing
    the Lord's work, et cetera, but there's a problem in K to 12,
    and people have been asking, the parents, and there's all this
    inside baseball up here, all these terms, and, you know, like
    we're going to fix this through policy. And so we're spending
    $13,000 a year per kid for 13 years and they don't know what
    business is when they get out. It's unbelievable.
        So you guys are saying let's find some skills for them.
    Well, I don't blame you, right? So if you're coming out and you
    don't know what a business is and you don't know about free
    markets and economics or any of that, then you're doing the
    next best step. Let's get these kids some skills and fit them
    into empty sectors where there's some jobs, right? So I get
    that.
        I'll just go through all for you real quick. Just how can
    we start to teach kids about free markets and get them excited
    about business? They're going to spend every waking hour of
    their life in business. And yet sometimes we tell them business
    is bad, right? So the rest of your life, all your waking hours,
    is going to be spent doing something morally bad, right? It's
    no wonder the kids look at you and go, ``I don't get it.''
        My Governor in Virginia is on the other side of the aisle.
    He's going around the world doing great stuff. He's getting
    jobs from China and India and all this kind of stuff. And yet
    we don't work together to convey that energy to the kids. This
    is the way it works up here in the big leagues, right? All the
    business people know what you have got to do to make money and
    be successful. But we don't give those secrets to the kids.
        And I'll just put on my econ hat, did economics for years.
    The industrial revolution skills, they've been with us forever.
    They didn't cause modern economic growth, I want to be clear on
    that. And you can go look at a bipartisan author, favorite of
    mine, Deirdre McCloskey. She's got a six-volume set out, she's
    a Nobel-caliber economist, and I'd recommend that to all of
    you, on why markets matter more than all these other subsets,
    right, education, skills. We have to do all of the above, but
    if you don't have working markets for kids to plug those skills
    in, if you go to a top-down communist society, you got skills,
    you're not going to get growth and kids won't end up rich.
        What can we do to pump up and motivate the K to 12 system
    so that the kids are more prepared for the skills when they get
    to you? And I'm not leaving you enough, but if you can just all
    weigh in as you see fit.
        Mr. Major. I'll start with that. And one of the
    opportunities we have in career and technical education is we
    hire teachers that have the technical content to come into the
    classroom and help them become teachers. When you look at your
    traditional academic teacher, and I had the greatest ninth
    grade English teacher in the world, but her whole professional
    experience was being a teacher. She liked school so she became
    a teacher. And so she had little knowledge as to what business
    and industry needed from students.
        So I think a way to address that is to provide professional
    development opportunities for teachers, provide externships for
    teachers that allow them to go out and interface with the
    business community so they can help make that connection
    between the academic content and the world beyond high school.
        Mr. Brat. Good. Anyone else?
        Ms. Huftalin. I will just share that one of the things that
    we built into the Utah Aerospace Pathways Partnership was that
    our professional development in the secondary schools, the
    teachers had to be part of that training. They had to go to
    Boeing, they had to go to Hexcel, they had to be part of that
    so that they could be on the floor in the environment
    understanding that particular industry much more clearly than
    if they would had just been in kind of the shelter of their own
    secondary school.
        Ms. Ricks. I was going to say some of the larger
    corporations have been doing that for some time, like IBM.
    Their employees give back and they get community service credit
    for going into the local schools and talking about business,
    talking about their industries.
        Mr. Johnson. I would recommend that you go the NCCER's
    career awareness site, BYF.org, that's Build Your Future. There
    are a ton of resources there that do exactly what you're
    talking about.
        Mr. Brat. Thank you all very much.
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman yields back.
        Ms. Clark, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
        Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank you to all the panelists who are with us today
    for this really interesting and important discussion.
        I had a question maybe for you, Mr. Johnson. You were
    talking about students coming back who maybe had the BA and
    you're quickly allowing them to get that associate's degree.
    How do you find the balance between helping business fill that
    short-term talent pipeline and the longer best educational
    goals for our students, maybe sort of the reverse of what you
    were describing? How do we find that balance?
        Mr. Johnson. Well, I think part of it is having a clearer
    recognition about career paths and what's available. We've
    created a culture that says if you want to be successful you
    graduate from high school, you go directly into a 4-year
    university, you get a degree, and you go to work. And I think
    that there are so many more pathways.
        We talk about electricians all the time. What if a young
    man or young woman is thinking that maybe they would like to be
    an electrical engineer at some point? What better preparation
    could they possibly have than to get into a CTE program and
    become a practicing electrician for a few years, save their
    money, understand what it's like to work in the field, then go
    back in to pursue their degree? What advantage does that
    individual then have over the rest of the individuals in that
    program that have come right out of high school and gone into
    that career track?
        So I think a lot of it has to do with understanding clearly
    about career paths and flexibility within career paths. I don't
    think we talk about that enough. So we've all talked
    specifically about the need to ensure that basic education.
    When we talk about CTE, we're never asking for less rigor. We
    generally ask for more relevance, right? I mentioned before,
    that pipe fitter's got to know as much math as the engineer
    does.
        So I think that the answer to that is more clear
    understanding of the potential that's out there in each
    individual career path.
        Ms. Clark. Great. And to pick up on a discussion we were
    having with my colleague from California, how do you think the
    assessment tests and sort of this remedial course work--I hear
    from students in my district that it's a big barrier. Students,
    as you were talking about, are trying, especially in our
    community college system, to either balance work or get to that
    first job as quickly as possible while they continue their
    education.
        How can we do a better job of aligning with the K through
    12 system? And do you have any models that you think are really
    working?
        Ms. Huftalin. I think for us at Salt Lake Community College
    we've been looking at our kind of developmental education and
    the major need that students are coming to us with those, both
    in math and writing, and really trying to stem that. As I
    mentioned earlier, we're working diligently with our math and
    writing faculty at the high school level to try to get that
    curriculum much more aligned.
        But we're really looking at accelerated developmental ed,
    corequisites, concurrent learning, supplemental instruction. So
    rather than make them take isolated developmental courses that
    kind of pushes off their degree, they can take them in
    conjunction with the training that they're interested in.
        The other thing I would suggest is that we've been very
    intention about stackable credentials so that students can take
    a very short-term certificate, get out into the world of work,
    start making money for their family, and then as the time is
    available, come back to the college and add to that another
    credential, eventually leading to an associate's degree. As
    their career trajectory changes, maybe they want to go into
    management, they can build on that, and none of that has been
    wasted time, if you will, in terms of articulation.
        Ms. Clark. Great. Thank you.
        And, Dr. Ricks, you have had tremendous experience on
    bringing women and people of color into the STEM field. Can you
    talk a little bit about that experience in Washington, D.C.,
    and what lessons you think that we can incorporated for the
    Perkins program?
        Ms. Ricks. One of the things that I think that underpins
    the barriers for women and underrepresented groups is this--and
    what they're now calling unconscious, biased, or stereotype
    threat, where they feel that they can't do the work, that they
    can't compete. And so I think if we give enough opportunities
    and we provide enough role modeling, I think that that goes
    very, very far. And organizations like the American Women in
    Science, AWIS, and other groups like that have gone very far in
    making sure that women and girls in particular are given these
    kinds of opportunities to see themselves in the roles that they
    envision.
        I think we tend to kind of minimize the importance of that,
    but it matters. Like when you look around this room, they've
    done studies on how even the Congress, they'll say, you know,
    to young girls and people of color, ``Do you see yourself
    becoming a Congressperson one day?'' And more frequently now
    the answer is yes, because they see themselves. And so that is
    critical in the sciences in particular.
        They still do--and I think it's kind of funny--they'll do
    these kinds of studies where they'll ask young children who are
    the scientists. And typically they will choose a white male in
    a lab coat. That's changing now. So now you see scientists of
    different colors, different backgrounds, different ages,
    because it was always someone over 50. Now it's someone under
    50. So I think that we could do a lot in doing that. -
        Chairman Rokita. The gentlelady's time has expired.
        The gentleman from Michigan is recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        And thank you to those of you who are here today to
    testify. Very interesting.
        I'm from the great State of Michigan where we are known for
    our skilled workers. And over the years we've kind of moved
    away from that in Michigan and we're trying to do whatever we
    can to ramp up our vocational environments again.
        And I'm wondering, I was just noticing, Dr. Huftalin, the
    Utah Aerospace Pathways Program is a fascinating example of
    partnership between local educators and industries. And I'm
    wondering if you can share with us how that internship program
    enhances the students' experience.
        And also in that same regard, what advice can you give to
    other learning environments, vocational learning environments,
    to continue updating their processes and continuing to align
    with changing needs to ensure they are properly preparing their
    students for the jobs that are available today?
        I ask that question because as I work my way through my
    district, I note that there is an emphasis on vocational
    training, but I'm not sure that it's just there to say it's
    there rather than being dynamic and moving with the economy. We
    have 96,000 unfilled jobs in Michigan, manufacturing jobs
    primarily, and it's very important for Michigan, and we're
    really trying to get this right.
        Ms. Huftalin. First, let me address the Utah Aerospace
    Pathways Program and how that came to be. When we created the
    partnership, we had very little time to move on this. And in
    higher education, it's rare that things move quickly. So this
    is remarkable in the sense that we were put together in about 6
    months and got this thing off the ground.
        But one of the things that was always center to that
    pathway was this idea that students would spend time in the
    industry in that 48-hour paid internship. Paid is important
    because students don't have--a lot of our students, if they're
    27, 28 years old and they're already working in our adult
    pathway that we're creating, that makes that very difficult,
    right?
        So young students in high school starting into that pathway
    will have a paid internship on the floor in Boeing, Hexcel, ATK
    Orbital, and really get to see with the real workers there
    what's going on in that industry, how dynamic that industry is,
    what does a day look like in that field. And we believe that
    kind of active learning, that very hands-on experience is going
    to definitely enhance their learning experience. So that was
    always part of our idea formation.
        The other piece I would ask or answer about your second
    question is that I think you have to be very careful. We have
    program advisory committees that are industry and education
    partners for every discipline. And you need to be, I think,
    mindful of those program advisory committees and the makeup and
    composition of who is on them, so that that's rotating, that
    that's reflecting the new energy of an industry, the up and
    coming innovations in an industry. You get them on the program
    advisory committee rather than people that have been in the
    industry for maybe 20 years and have kind of maybe lost sight
    of some of the advancements, making sure that's a dynamic
    composition so that you're getting the best information about
    your curriculum.
        Mr. Bishop. Very nice. Thank you very much.
        And I'd kind of like to, Mr. Johnson, continue with the
    conversation you were having with Mr. Carter. You were
    emphasizing the importance of partnering with practitioners.
    And I agree with that. And I'm wondering if you could--you were
    starting to talk about it, and I want to make sure that you had
    time to speak about it and talk about the importance and why
    you think it's important to partner with practitioners.
        Mr. Johnson. Well, if you look at the way NCCER programs
    are delivered, they are delivered, you know, obviously at the
    local level by skilled craftspeople who have gone through an
    instructor certification and training program very closely tied
    into construction companies that hire the individuals that go
    through our programs. I don't know of any other way for us to
    do it, quite frankly, than to be closely partnered with the
    practitioners, with the companies, with the individual skilled
    folks.
        Just a note. We have a lot of available jobs in the State
    of Louisiana as well, a lot of industrial expansion going on
    there. I've seen a study from the Louisiana Community and
    Technical College System that says of the tier one jobs, that's
    our five-star and four-star jobs, these are the best jobs
    available in Louisiana, some 15,000 to 20,000 a year for the
    next 5 years, 85 percent of them require something less than a
    4-year college degree.
        Now, all of them require something more than a high school
    diploma, an industry-based certification or associate degree,
    but 85 percent of them require something less than a 4-year
    college degree. So we have to engage those practitioners to
    develop those skills and we're doing that in a significant way.
        Mr. Bishop. Thank you very much for that.
        And I yield back.
        Chairman Rokita. The gentlemen yields back. I thank the
    gentleman.
        Mrs. Davis, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Appreciate you all being here.
        One of things that you talked about just a few minutes ago
    was sort of that back and forth with industry and the ability
    of instructors, teachers to really get a sense of what's going
    on in the real world and be able to translate that for their
    students.
        I wanted to ask you, though, about the curriculum for CTE
    teachers themselves. You were just talking a little about that.
    You have to know your--if you're teaching a craft, you sure as
    heck want to know how to do that. But are there some other
    attributes and ways of training for--I think, Dr. Johnson, you
    talked about citizenship ready skills.
        What is it that perhaps within this range of classes is
    really required of the instructors themselves, the kind of role
    model that those individuals are? What have you seen that
    perhaps is different, you know, from an English teacher, from a
    history teacher?
        Mr. Johnson. Well, I've said often that you can be the best
    pipe fitter in the world. It doesn't necessarily mean you can
    teach pipe fitting, right? I mean, there are some very specific
    instructional capabilities, communication skills, motivational
    skills, the ability to connect and attach.
        I think if you look at the way the NCCER programs are laid
    out, generally in four levels, if you are in the core
    curriculum level one, the demand on you in terms of your
    overall craft skill maybe is not as high, and so we can make
    some allowances at those levels when we're teaching those at,
    say, the K-12, the secondary level, that maybe that individual
    does not need to be what we would call an A level or journey
    level crafts person.
        But as we get up into those higher levels, those levels
    three and four, particularly in private programs and at the
    community and technical colleges, we need to make sure that
    those individuals have the relevant skills and abilities and
    have been in the industry so that they're attached to what's
    going on.
        Mr. Major. I might add to that just a little bit. We hire
    most of our instructors from industry. And so when they come
    in, we put them through an assessment, like NCCER, in our
    construction trades, to make sure that they have the technical
    knowledge. But we also look for what other employers look for,
    and that's the ability to communicate and work together as a
    team.
        Once they're on our staff and they begin teaching, we also
    put them in the role of an adviser of a career tech student
    organization, and the career tech student organizations are our
    tools to help instill those employability skills to our
    students. We all learn best when we teach. And so as our
    teachers are guiding and being a role model and adviser to
    those organizations, they too are modeling those soft skills.
        Soft skills tend to be a big topic when we have our
    advisory committee meetings because it's the first thing that
    employers want to talk about, is how do we enhance that. And so
    we try to work in combination of providing a good balance
    between the technical, the academic, but also those
    employability skills that students are going to need.
        Mrs. Davis. These are sometimes very diverse populations
    that people are teaching, perhaps not the way that they grew up
    necessarily. And so how is that inculcated? I mean, we talk
    about cultural competency, of course. But what is it that may
    be important even in terms of how we engage, recruit
    individuals as well within these fields? I mean, is that
    working? Are we seeing the diversity that we should have?
        Ms. Huftalin. I might just share that at Salt Lake
    Community College, one of the shifts that we're making, as I'm
    sure many institutions are making, is the shift from this idea
    that the focus is on teaching to that the focus is on learning.
    So that you have a variety of students walking into your
    classroom from very diverse backgrounds, age backgrounds,
    gender, you know, religious backgrounds, and most importantly,
    academic preparedness, right?
        So our faculty, and I would say faculty in CTE and academic
    are really moving into more about how do we assess the learning
    throughout the semester or throughout in short term so that
    we're giving students academic confidence early on. Many of our
    students are at jeopardy for dropping out. They're first
    generation students, they're nervous, they don't think they're
    college material. They need to see early progress, and they
    need to have early wins to see themselves as career ready or a
    college student.
        And so we're working with our faculty to help them. How
    soon can you give students really critical feedback? How do you
    create that feedback so that it's accessible to the student and
    then they can learn from that so that they feel confident and
    they feel like they can persist?
        Mrs. Davis. Yeah. Dr. Major.
        Mr. Major. One other comment that I might add. We have our
    students for 3 hours a day, whether they're a high school
    student or an adult, and they spend more time with our
    instructor than they do with their own families. One of the
    things we really talk about on our campus is culture and
    climate. And students need to know that you care, you care
    about them in their technical studies, you care about them in
    their academic studies, but you also care about them in their
    lives.
        And so you can't measure that, but you can observe that.
    And I can tell you our teachers do a great job of wrapping
    their arms around all of our students to help them succeed.
        Chairman Rokita. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
    expired.
        I'll now recognize myself for 5 minutes.
        I appreciate everyone's leadership and the testimony and
    trying to encapsulate it all here at the end.
        I guess one question I still have, and then I want to yield
    the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
    who's going to follow up on the parental engagement centers and
    maybe some other things, is I heard about best practices. I
    heard about things that are going right. I heard about things
    are needed more. Teach the teacher programs and guidance
    counselor education, and that kind of thing. But I'm not
    hearing that Perkins is prohibiting that specifically, right?
    So this is a hearing that's ahead of us writing a bill that's
    going to reauthorize it.
        So I'd be remiss--it's not that I'm looking for more work,
    we have enough problems that present themselves quite fully
    already--but I'd be remiss if I didn't get you all on record to
    say, hey, what's not working in Perkins, or what can be
    changed, maybe the focus on the State plan, or anything, the
    requirements there or the fact that you have to do two State
    plans versus maybe one. Any suggestions? Thirty seconds only
    each, please, if you have anything to add.
        Dr. Huftalin.
        Ms. Huftalin. I would just add that as you're looking at
    any kind of metrics or accountability, that you look at
    consistent metrics across multiple acts. So that right now we
    often have to meet different burdens of proof in terms of our
    accountability using different metrics. And to the extent that
    you could align those so that community colleges--so we are all
    looking at the same things for our different requirements, that
    would be less of a burden on us.
        It would also help us as a community college, is that
    oftentimes we are asked to look at metrics that may be not as
    salient to community colleges as a 4-year institution. So to
    the extent that you can look at completion, that would be
    great.
        Chairman Rokita. Great. Thank you, Doctor.
        Dr. Major.
        Mr. Major. I would continue that discussion in saying that
    I think the Perkins Act needs to continue to focus on high-
    quality programs that lead to a recognized outcome, and that in
    order for programs to have access to the funds, that they fall
    within that definition of high quality.
        Chairman Rokita. And who gets to define that?
        Mr. Major. I think that can be defined broadly in the
    legislation, but then also hold the States accountable. The
    delivery systems for career and technical education--
        Chairman Rokita. So the states could define high quality
    individually?
        Mr. Major. Within the guidelines of the overall act.
        Chairman Rokita. And that's okay with you, Dr. Huftalin,
    given your previous comment?
        Ms. Huftalin. Well, I would want met consistent metrics
    being used.
        Chairman Rokita. Does that include definitions?
        Ms. Huftalin. Yes.
        Chairman Rokita. Okay. See, you're making our job harder. I
    love it.
        Dr. Ricks?
        Ms. Ricks. I would say to embed some of the principles and
    practices of Perkins in minority-serving institutions. That
    includes HBCUs, HSIs, and tribal colleges. And also metrics.
        Chairman Rokita. Would you put specifics in writing to us
    after the hearing?
        Ms. Ricks. Absolutely.
        Chairman Rokita. Thank you so much.
        Chairman Rokita. Mr. Johnson, in about 30 seconds.
        Mr. Johnson. Can't improve on what's been said.
        Chairman Rokita. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. You made up for
    going over all those other times. I appreciate it.
        I yield the rest of my 2 minutes, 8 seconds to the
    gentleman from Pennsylvania.
        Mr. Thompson. Mr. Chairman, you are amazing and generous.
    Thank you.
        I just want to note, in terms of I picked up on a new
    terminology from Dr. Ricks, which certainly applies to career
    and technical education, the K through gray. I'm hoping for
    gray. I'm on the losing end of that. But the fact is K through
    gray in terms of career exploration, career preparation, and
    career launching, mobilization, and that's the exciting part
    about career and technical education. It is the life span.
        This committee has done great work. The Workforce
    Innovation and Opportunity Act. We really focused on just
    zeroing in on that early--not the earliest, but the 16, we have
    specific language specifically for 16 to 29, you know, trying
    to help folks break into the workforce through the Workforce
    Investment Act reauthorization that is law today.
        And then with ESEA, I want to come back to the parental or
    the family engagement centers. We have language within the
    Student Success Act. That, again, we have to get ESEA done.
        So if we are successful--when we are successful--looking
    for how do we utilize that as a model to utilize to support
    career and technical education with the family engagement
    centers? Any thoughts and ideas?
        Dr. Huftalin, you talked about emphasizing the salaries,
    the moneys. I think that's a great strategy. Other ideas?
        Ms. Huftalin. One thing I might add is that we are working
    very carefully with the community council in this neighborhood
    where we're hoping to build this new building. And I think to
    the extent that you can get the residents of the neighborhood
    and the community in the space to see how state of the art it's
    going be, to see how exciting the training's going to be, that
    could perhaps lend some support to the parents really
    supporting that for their family.
        Mr. Thompson. Any other strategies come to mind?
        Mr. Major. I think if we can encourage parents to be more
    involved in their student's program of study, starting at the
    earlier grades, so that they're aware of the coursework that
    they're taking and where that coursework might lead them in the
    future, would be helpful.
        Mr. Thompson. Okay. Thank you, Chairman.
        Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired. The
    gentleman yields back. The gentleman's time has expired.
        I thank the witnesses again for their testimony.
        And, Ms. Fudge, you're recognized for closing remarks.
        Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank you all so much for being here.
        I have for many years talked about the fact that America
    once again needs to build and make things. We have always been
    the Nation that everyone looked to for quality. And so we need
    people who are skilled to do this work.
        Once we get back to being who we are as a Nation, certainly
    young people will have jobs, and they will see the alternatives
    that you are trying to present.
        So I just hope that you are successful. And I certainly
    hope that this Congress moves forward to reauthorize this act
    and to once again understand who we are as a Nation, that we
    are the best, and that we need to continue to be the best by
    making sure we have a workforce that is able to keep us on the
    top.
        Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentlelady, and I echo the
    gentlelady's comments.
        In closing, I want to thank our witnesses again. And I
    appreciate, I really do, your leadership and what you're doing
    for Americans' future, our best asset, our children and our
    students.
        And with that, seeing no further business before the
    committee, this hearing adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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