The U.S. government may be serious about supporting the role of manufacturing in creating jobs – especially those new, high-technology jobs that are supposed to abound in a growing, green economy – but it’s not maintaining funding for the kinds of programs needed to train the new green-collar technician.
A recent New York Times article says, instead, federal funding to provide such vocational and technical education is at risk. The government has made it a priority to raise overall academic standards and college graduation rates, and aims to shrink the small amount of federal spending for vocational training in public high schools and community colleges. That aid comes primarily in the form of Perkins grants to states.
The administration has proposed a 20 percent reduction in its fiscal 2012 budget for career and technical education, to a little more than $1 billion, even as it seeks to increase overall education funding by 11 percent.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Community Colleges and Associations Try to Close the Skills Gap | Sustainable Plant
Author: Joel Leonard
