State officials outline plan to centralize CTE governance; key funding, curriculum and transportation questions remain

Secretary of Education Zoe Saunders told the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on March 18, 2025, that state staff are developing a proposal to centralize career and technical education (CTE) under a single CTE BOCES and had highlighted “key decision points” for the committee to consider. Saunders said the plan outlines roles and responsibilities for the Agency of Education, a CTE BOCES executive office, tech-center directors and sending districts, and compares the current configuration with options under the governor’s five-district K–12 proposal.

The proposal’s stated benefits include a unified statewide CTE vision, a coordinated federal Perkins plan, standardized curriculum and consistent professional development for CTE educators, a common approach to enrollment and admissions policies, and a consistent approach to data collection and reporting. “APA’s recommendation is that staff are employed by the BOCES in this model,” Saunders said when asked where tech-center staff would be employed.

The agency described its continuing responsibilities in the proposed model: statewide oversight and monitoring for federal and state requirements, site visits to CTE centers, coordinating state-led professional development and technical assistance, credential mapping, data management and analysis, coordination with postsecondary and workforce partners and teacher licensure. Saunders said the agency will remain responsible for compliance and accountability work even if some operational functions shift to the CTE BOCES.

Committee members pressed for specificity on several implementation points. On curriculum, members asked whether the proposed CTE BOCES would issue mandatory curricula or provide vetted instructional resources and guidance. Saunders said the k–12 curriculum approach is currently nonprescriptive and focused on increasing access to high-quality materials, but added that the CTE space must account for Perkins compliance and “we may need to be more directed in that space.”

On transportation, Saunders said the state is modeling additional costs and has assumed higher transportation funding in prototypical budgets. She noted that reimbursement for transportation currently covers roughly half of costs and that Perkins grants cover a portion; she said she would confirm how Perkins funds are being used for transportation. On data systems, the agency described prior work evaluating a common student information approach and said it is developing EDVI, a process to collect and normalize data from multiple systems for reporting, while recognizing further system integration work will be required.

Budget and staffing questions were raised repeatedly. Saunders said the administration asked K–12 Solutions and Nate Levinson to create a prototypical budget for operating under a five-district model; that analysis includes CTE and models savings and costs but requires further refinement to reflect regional salary differences. The administration also plans to publish district budgets tied to the five-district model and to provide further detail on facility ownership, equipment and debt-service responsibilities.

Representatives of the Vermont Department of Labor and district leaders told the committee they support clear workforce alignment and expanded access. Kendall Smith, deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor, urged that any governance model be judged by several workforce-focused principles: increasing access to CTE for middle school, high school and adult students; consistent statewide program quality aligned to current and forecasted employer needs; easier entry points for employers and partner organizations to work with schools; stronger links to adult education and training; and a clear statement of how CTE fits into the broader workforce system. “Increasing access to career technical education, both for high school students, middle school students, adult students across the entire spectrum,” Smith said, should be the first priority.

School leaders and CTE directors expressed caution about committing to a final governance model before the committee resolves broader K–12 district boundaries. Dan Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals Association, said that CTE directors “prefer to keep things as they are until decisions have been made at the state level as to the number, composition, and geographical boundaries of school districts” and that many directors favor either a standalone CTE district model or multiple regional CTE districts rather than an immediate consolidation.

Committee members and witnesses flagged additional implementation decisions that remain unresolved: whether BOCES or districts approve center budgets (Saunders said the BOCES would coordinate and approve center budgets), how community input will be gathered for budget development, whether CLNAs (comprehensive local needs assessments) will be one-per-Perkins-plan versus per center, how to staff new and restored agency positions for CTE, collective-bargaining implications if employees shift employers, and whether and how to mandate middle-school career-exploration programs through the Education Quality Standards.

No final votes or formal actions were taken. Committee members asked the agency and partners to return with more detailed analysis, including: examples of states with a single statewide Perkins plan or other BOCES models; explicit recommendations on how directive state curriculum for CTE should be; clarified transportation funding and what Perkins will cover; staff-count history and the staffing needed to support CTE at scale; the prototypical five-district budgets refined by regional salary differences; and a clearer plan for integrating data systems. The committee scheduled a follow-up briefing by the agency and partners for the following Wednesday or Thursday to address those questions.

Why this matters: The questions raised at the hearing affect how CTE will be organized, funded and staffed statewide — and they will influence access to programs, the alignment of training with employer needs and how Perkins and state dollars are used. The committee directed staff to return with more specific options and budget detail before choosing a governance path.