CTE directors tell House committee moratorium, governance plan could limit access to career and technical programs

Jody Emerson, superintendent director of the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre and president of the Vermont Association of Career and Technical Education (VACTED), told the House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development on March 19, 2025, that a draft bill’s moratorium on new centers and unclear governance language could reduce student access to career and technical education (CTE).

The directors’ testimony came as committee members discussed multiple governance models — single statewide CTE district, regional districts that include host high schools, or an educational service agency/BOCES-style model — and as staff and directors raised concerns about program access, professional development, and funding alignment.

Why it matters: Directors said the draft bill’s moratorium (language discussed in the hearing would pause new centers or programs from 07/01/2025 to 07/01/2028 as written) could directly block projects that are already in design and on local bond timelines, and that governance choices without parallel changes to funding and supervisory structure could add administrative cost rather than save it.

Emerson said Vermont’s CTE centers are operationally intertwined with their host high schools — sharing phone systems, emergency plans, cameras, utilities and schedules — and that splitting CTE governance from the broader K–12 system risks weakening those relationships. “Our priority is making sure that there's access,”…