[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 25-26]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TEACH ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about 
a growing problem in the United States: Employers across our country 
have millions of job openings but are unable

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to find workers with the skills needed to fill those jobs.
  According to a recent study by CareerBuilder, nearly 50 percent of 
employers nationwide cannot find skilled workers to fill open 
positions. Many of these jobs are located in lucrative career fields 
like welding, emergency medical response, electrical engineering, 
robotics, and carpentry.
  This gap between employers and our workers is holding our economy 
back; it is exacerbating our unemployment problem; it is hurting our 
communities; and it is placing unneeded pressure on our families.
  The American economy needs qualified workers with the skills and 
drive necessary to fill these open jobs. I believe part of the answer 
to how we address this problem is career and technical education. 
Career and technical education, or CTE, is simply education that 
specializes in the skilled trades, applied sciences, information 
technology, and similar disciplines.
  Career and technical education occurs in schools across America. In 
my home State of West Virginia, about 65,000 students each year 
participate in CTE courses. Those who do are much more likely to 
succeed. Over 80 percent of West Virginia participants meet industry-
driven performance requirements for the technical skills they receive, 
and 95 percent go on to additional postsecondary education, the 
workforce, or the military.
  I hear about CTE all the time as I travel across my district in West 
Virginia and visit schools and community colleges. I have seen the 
classrooms and the students whose eyes light up when they show off 
their work. I have spoken to the faculty and administrators who have 
committed their careers to training up a next generation workforce, and 
I know that just a little more support will make a huge difference.
  While there is no silver bullet to our Nation's unemployment problem, 
additional investment in CTE is one way to help put people back to work 
and grow our economy.
  The skills provided by CTE are some of the most highly sought-after 
skills in our economy today. But ironically enough, these are the 
hardest jobs to fill in the United States because of the lack of 
adequately trained individuals. According to a recent study by the 
Manufacturing Institute, over 2 million manufacturing jobs will go 
unfilled in the next decade because of the skills gap.
  I believe we can help. That is why I joined with seven of my 
colleagues to introduce H.R. 4263, the TEACH Act, also known as the 
Technical Education and Career Help Act.
  My bipartisan bill will invest in our CTE programs by providing new 
resources for the technical education teachers without authorizing any 
new spending. My bill will authorize the Higher Education Act's teacher 
residency grant program to be used to help schools recruit and train 
high-quality CTE teachers. This is currently not allowed.
  My bill will increase the quality of training that students receive 
by recruiting midcareer professionals in relevant technical fields. 
Having teachers with real work experience in the fields that they teach 
will ensure students receive the best training.
  I would like to thank Congresswoman Katherine Clark for cosponsoring 
this bipartisan bill with me, along with Representatives Rod Blum, 
Bruce Poliquin, Tom MacArthur, Jim Langevin, Pete Aguilar, and Ami 
Bera.
  Our bill has been endorsed by a broad group of experts, including the 
Alliance for Excellent Education, the American Federation of Teachers, 
the Association for Career and Technical Education, and the Future 
Farmers of America.
  My bill is an example that Republicans and Democrats can work 
together. My bill will help provide new hope to our communities by 
equipping hardworking West Virginians and all Americans with skills 
they can actually use.
  We need to invest in career and technical education now or we will 
miss out on this important opportunity. I encourage my colleagues in 
the House to support the TEACH Act and consider the important 
difference it would make across our great country.

                          ____________________