Congress petitioned on career education

Leaders of the Arkansas Association for Career and Technical Education urged lawmakers last week to reauthorize federal Perkins funding.

The program is named after the late U.S. Rep. Carl D. Perkins, D-Ky., a former schoolteacher who served as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

In 1984, the year he died, Congress passed the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. The measure was reauthorized and its name was slightly tweaked in 2006. It provides nearly $1.3 billion annually to support career and technical education in all 50 states.

Starlinda Sanders, the association’s president, and Ross White, its past president, both made the rounds on Capitol Hill, meeting with members of the Arkansas congressional delegation.

Technology is rapidly evolving, and it takes money to provide the training students need, White said.

Federal dollars have been stagnant for more than a decade.

“We’ve essentially had a 25-30 percent decrease in … funding because of inflation rates,” Sanders said.

“We’d love to see an increase in funding,” Ross added.

Sanders is the career and technical education director for the Bentonville school district; White is the career and technical education director in Siloam Springs.