Tuesday at the Montana Legislature, the Senate Finance and Claims Committee heard a bill to give more funding for vocational arts within state elementary and high schools.
House Bill 356 sends $1 million more to schools to help prepare Montanans for work after high school. Assistant Superintendent for Great Falls Public Schools Tom Moore says about 50 percent of his students go on to college, which leaves the other half looking for good-paying work. Moore says that beyond that, technical skills can help many others.
“Career and technical education these days is not just for those kids who want to learn how to glue and sew and fix automobiles, it’s to enhance our pre-engineering programs, our med prep programs and so forth."
Vocational arts programs also prepare students for technical degrees. Twenty-seven percent of those graduates earn more on average than those with bachelor’s degrees, according to the Center for Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Donald Jones says the original amount was $10 million dispersed across Montana, but even $1 million helps when each state vocational student gets $23.77 compared to nearby states like South Dakota, where it's $230 per student.
“This is a great investment, I think it’s way too low." said Jones. "We talked about $10 million, I would really like $10 million, but I think a minimum investment needs to be $5 million.”
There was no public opposition to the bill, though Senator David Howard pointed out that if the bill passes, even if at only $1 million, the money would have to come out of another state program.
