CTE directors tell Senate committee they need funding, common standards and more capacity to serve students

Directors of Vermont’s career and technical education centers told the Senate Education Committee on March 20 that proposed governance changes should guarantee stable funding, statewide alignment on graduation requirements and calendars, and money for facility expansion and instructor pay so centers can serve more students.

The testimony came during a committee meeting with multiple CTE directors and center leaders who answered lawmakers’ questions about the ingredients they say are required for successful CTE programs.

The committee heard specific examples of how centers operate and what is at stake. “All students are treated the same in the sense that they’re all just St. Johnsbury Academy students,” Pat Gookin, career tech ed director at St. Johnsbury Academy, said, describing a campus model where technical courses are fully integrated with academics. Gookin highlighted how proximity and scheduling let students participate in both CTE courses and extracurriculars; St. Johnsbury enrolls roughly 950 students and runs a handful of trade-focused programs, he said.

Melissa Connor, director at Stafford Technical Center in Rutland, told senators the centers need clearer statewide rules on credits and schedules. “If high school graduation requirements are the same across the state,” Connor said, “it creates an unnecessary barrier for a lot of our students,” explaining that Stafford serves students from as many as 11 different high schools and often loses instructional time or must administer independent studies to satisfy varying local diploma rules.

Why it matters

Directors warned that…