Area lawmakers are backing a bipartisan measure that seeks to address a shortage of career and technical education teachers in the nation, including right here in West Virginia and Virginia.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., joined U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. last week in introducing the Creating Quality Technical Educators Act.
The proposed legislation will create a teacher residency grant program to help address the shortage of career and technical education teachers in schools. It also creates partnerships between elementary, middle, or high schools and higher education institutions to offer one-year teacher residencies to train prospective educators.
The measure takes a proactive approach to recruit and train high-quality career and technical education teachers who will be able to better prepare students with the skills needed to fill in-demand jobs, Capito and Kaine said.
“Career and technical education teachers play an important role in providing students with the knowledge and skills they need to secure good-paying jobs in industries that are critical to economic growth and development,” Capito said.
“To strengthen our economy, we’ve got to ensure our education system meets the needs of the modern workforce,” Kaine added. “One important way we can accomplish that is by ensuring we have enough high-quality CTE teachers in schools. “
The common sense measure merits strong support. There are many jobs in our nation today that require students with specific technical skills. However, in order to help meet these in-demand jobs, we must have experienced and quality career and technical education teachers available to train our students.