Job-school overhaul advances
Bill increases industries’ input on workforce development
The state Board of Career Education would be overhauled and coordinate the state’s workforce development programs under legislation that cleared the state Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
“We have industries and businesses here in this state that have really good jobs, but can’t find the workers for those jobs, so this bill is a really beginning step to setting up a comprehensive workforce development system in the state,” said committee Chairman Jane English, R-North Little Rock.
She said her Senate Bill 368 would change the Board of Career Education membership so it would be made up of up to 13 “industry sector folks who are the people who are creating the jobs.”
English said her bill would create a Skills Development Fund in the Department of Career Education that “we hope will grow so that we have an opportunity to work with business and industry and set up both secondary programs in high schools and in the two-year colleges so everybody has a chance to be able to learn some technical skills and have an opportunity for a career pathway.”
Under existing state law, the board is composed of seven members appointed by the governor.
SB368 would require the governor to appoint 10 board members from a list of recommendations by industry and business associations and up to three other board members from other industries. The governor would be required to call the first board meeting within 90 days after the appointment of the board members.
The board also would be renamed the Career Education and Workforce Development Board.
Board member John Riggs of Little Rock told the Senate committee that he’s served on the board for the past seven years, “so I am in a unique position to ask you … to get rid of my job.
“There is a huge lack of coordination between all the workforce opportunities that state government has,” said Riggs, who is president of J.A. Riggs Tractor Co. and a former Democratic state senator.
Riggs said he loves each person on the board, but some of them have been on the board since 1997, when it was created under state law.
“A lot of these folks really don’t understand industry. They are community folks and that’s good. We need community folks. But they don’t understand technical training and what we have to do to get people the skills and get people jobs.”
It’s difficult to find somebody to serve on the board because “the job description is so vague nobody knows what they are supposed to be doing,” said Riggs. “This is a sad indictment, but there are board members that served with me I’ve never met. I have been on the board for seven years and they’ve never showed up.”
The other board members include Phil Taylor of Jonesboro, Richard Smith of Tillar, Margarita Solorzano of Springdale, Martha Dixon of Arkadelphia, Ann Bain of Little Rock and Lottie Shackelford of Little Rock, according to the state Department of Career Education’s website.
Under the bill, the board would be required to create a comprehensive statewide program of career education and workforce development and oversee a newly created Office of Skills Development in the Department of Career Education. The office would award grants to public and private organizations for the development and implementation of workforce training programs.
English said $10 million in state funds is available for the Skills Development Fund based on commitments made by former Gov. Mike Beebe last year. Beebe authorized the reallocation of about $15 million from various funding sources for industry training programs at the state Economic Development Commission, and most of that money has not been spent, said state Budget Administrator Brandon Sharp.
English said she also is seeking $40 million through the General Improvement Fund, which is largely surplus funds, for the Skills Development Fund.
The Senate Education Committee also endorsed a companion bill, SB371 by English, which would allow school districts to use state funds targeted for low-income students to work with state-supported higher education institutions and technical institutes to provide concurrent course or technical education options for high school students so they are “college and career ready” when they graduate from high school.