A special Arizona House Education Committee passed by a unanimous vote on Monday, HB 2642, legislation meant to restore full funding to the same levels prior to last year’s budget for every Joint Technical Education District (JTED) student in Arizona.
One of the prime sponsors of HB 2642 Representative Chris Ackerly stated, “As an educator I have seen firsthand how valuable JTED supported programs are in preparing students for college, career and keeping kids engaged in school. On behalf of the members of the House I was proud to introduce the bill in front of today’s education committee as we start the process of restoring JTED funding.”
After hearing concerns and input from Republican caucus members in the House, the legislation will also include accountability, performance measures, and JTED finance reforms.
Some of the accountability and performance measures will include:
-Placing JTEDs in the A-F accountability system
-Including JTEDs in an ongoing Performance Audit Cycle
-Requiring the Auditor General to perform a Special Audit on JTEDs
-JTEDs will be placed in the regular cycle of Performance Audits
-Establishing a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Task Force that will help create uniformity across JTED and CTE platforms including certifications, establishing open enrollment across all JTEDs, and reducing duplicative CTE programs and courses based on specific criteria.
Some of the finance reforms will include:
-Eliminating the 7.5 percent funding reduction previously enacted for FY2017
-Fixing the graduated student gap so that students who have graduated or achieved a GED between the ages of 18 and 21 are no longer included in student counts for JTED courses
-Prohibiting district schools from requiring more courses than necessary to graduate before allowing a student to attend a JTED
Rep. Bob Thorpe stated, “I’m a huge supporter of our JTED and CTE programs and students, and I’m thrilled that my city of Flagstaff has the number one high school welder in the nation. Many House and Senate Republicans were disappointed with the changes to JTED and CTE in last year’s budget. I was very pleased that we made it a fast-track priority to fix JTED, and we were able to vote it out of the special meeting of the Education committee yesterday.”
“I am pleased we were able to come up with a solution that fully restores funding to JTED students across the state while implementing some important accountability measures to ensure high-quality educational outputs,” stated Appropriations Chairman Justin Olson. “These kinds of programs are vital to the state of Arizona, ensuring that students are able to step into the workforce with the skills employers want and need.”
Majority Leader Steve Montenegro stated, “Many students do better in JTED programs than in traditional academic programs. Businesses in our state are looking for people with the skills and certifications that can be gained at a JTED. This agreement, not only means that our current JTED students will be fully funded, the reforms ensure that our JTED programs will be even better in the future.”