Changes could be on the horizon for career and technical schools throughout Rhode Island. After more than three decades, state officials, educators and lawmakers are reassessing a program that some contend has been riddled with problems. At the same time, labor leaders point to technical training as critical to ensuring the very existence of a qualified workforce.
The problems with the career and technical centers seem to rest in the coordination of the programs between the state and the cities and towns where they exist. At the very least – the system has been a confusing one.
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When the legislation was originally proposed for the vocational centers, there were to be two kinds of districts, “sending” districts and “receiving” districts. The sending districts are those which send students to the towns or cities where the schools are located. The receiving districts are those in which those schools are located. According to the originally proposed legislation each district would be required to pay based on a quota, regardless of how many students they actually had participating in the program. But when the final legislation was passed, the requirements were changed and sending districts only had to pay for students who attended the school – forcing many of the receiving districts to bear most of the costs.
More changes came after a 1990 report to the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education recommended transforming existing career and technical centers into independent, full-day regional schools focused on career preparation.
Legislation passed in 1991, based on the report established the first independent school, the Davies Career and Technical School in Lincoln. Funded entirely by the state, the school is governed by an advisory board made up members of the business community, educators, and officials from the Department of Education.
A subsequent bond issue in 1993 created a second school, the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Education Center, based on the same format. But since then the changeover has stopped.
“All 10 schools operate under the aegis of the state,” said Todd Flaherty, deputy commissioner of Elementary and Secondary education. “There are regulations, but they all have broad latitude on their operations. There are inequity issues for sure, when one school has all of its operations funds paid for by the state.”
At the same time as the remaining eight schools are struggling to define themselves and their programs, the Rhode Island economy is facing a serious shortage of trained workers, many of whom could be educated at these centers.
“If you look around the Rhode Island economy right now there are several industries, or occupations that are crying out for workers,” said George Nee, secretary/treasurer of the AFL-CIO and a member of the Governor’s Career and Vocational Education Task Force. “The demand is there and our educational system is not keeping up.”
In the State of the State address last year, Governor Almond directed a task force to “review the current practices, to consult with experts in relevant fields, and to formulate policy recommendations on restructuring Rhode Island’s career and technical education system.”
The committee began meeting in September of 1999 and by January of 2000 had completed its study. In a letter to the governor the committee said though they “found a great deal had been accomplished by the current career and technical education system” there were some serious problems.
”Our enthusiasm was tempered, however, by the realization that the career and technical education system, whatever its successes to date, is not up to the challenges before us. In order to ensure that the graduates of these centers are ready for careers as well as jobs and for lifelong learning as well as work, we need to redesign and restructure the career and technical education system,” it said in the letter.
Nowhere is there a more perfect example of this than at the Chariho Career and Technical School. Carved out among the trees along Switch Road in Richmond, the school was one of the first created by the initial legislation in 1967.
But now, after more than three decades, the Chariho School District is entertaining the idea of closing the school, which is home to more than 300 students, because the costs of maintaining and operating have gotten so high, topping almost $1 million a year.
”It concerns me that anyone would think that they would want to close this school,” said Joe Crowley, director of the Chariho Career and Technical Center. “But I can fully understand their frustration.”
Frustration is being felt around the state, as there is a backlog of almost $15 million worth of structural and technical repairs to the schools. Crowley said that although more than $700,000 of repairs were recently completed in Chariho, they didn’t come quickly or easily.
”It was a long, long haul,” he said. “I had to start a letter writing campaign, and ask the school committee to also contact legislators. So, I think it is frustration that people are hearing.”
One of the school’s major problems is funding. According to Crowley, that problem is a direct result of the initial legislation.
”The original (proposed) legislation was politically unpalatable for some districts,” Crowley said. “But there was a big difference between the two, and the upshot of it all is the creation of a huge inequity for receiving districts like ours.”
Crowley said as a result, the majority of students at his school are from the Chariho district, and the number of students coming from the three sending districts in his area, Narragansett, South Kingstown, Westerly has been declining every year.
”Chariho is shouldering a much larger piece of the cost than they did 25 or 30 years ago,” he said. “Although the population of the school hasn’t declined all that much, the make-up of the student population has. It’s cheaper for the other schools to keep kids in their own home districts.”
But if the governor approves the task force recommendation, Flaherty said the changes that were begun in the early 1990s could once again continue. According to a draft of the report, the restructuring would focus on three components: program, governance and funding.
But the changes wouldn’t come without a hefty price tag. In fact, the committee suggested the state prepare a $15 million statewide bond issue to bring the centers’ facilities up to standard; it provide the department of education with funds for program and curriculum development; and that all centers be funded by the sate.
“These schools have always operated in the shadow of the educational system,” Nee said. “It’s time we put a spotlight on them. The changes are only drastic because the vocational education system has been neglected for so long – so we are paying the price now.”+
Flaherty said each school would be responsible for deciding what kind of curriculum program is best for them, but unlike the current system that curriculum would have to meet not only academic standards, but national industry standards as well.
He said programs would be representative of industry clusters, identified by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and the Human Resource Investment council. In addition, schools would be required to monitor students’ progress and outcomes, as a way of driving improvement and redesign.
A large portion of the programs, Flaherty said, would be linking schools with area business and offering students the change to get some hands-on learning in the field.
”This new notion of preparing kids for the 21st century doesn’t assume that you can get it done within the traditional four walls,” he said. “There is ability for schools to give a quality education while at the same time providing experience. It’s not one size fits all. The main thing is to monitor the system for quality.”
The governor is expected to comment on the recommendations of the committee at the end of the month.
