Keep CTE Enhanced Funding

The state legislature is passing bills and making changes that affect school funding. One of these issues is Career and Technical Education (CTE) enhanced funding.  The CTE Enhanced Funding provides funding for schools in which students are enrolled in CTE related courses. This is funding for CTE and STEM related courses such as Robotics, Engineering, and Computer programming classes and many more.

 Recent policy decisions by state legislature have substantially reduced the CTE funding enhancement in the current budget.  This means that funding for CTE students is more closely aligned with funding for general education students. Funding enhancements for the CTE program intended to support lower class sizes and provide a safer environment for the students are being reduced. It also means all of the past good work related to CTE and the bills currently in the legislature that are related to CTE will lack the funding needed to implement and conduct over time.

 Current CTE program allocations do not align with expenditures within the program; 89% of CTE enhancement is the MSOC Allocation; 11% of CTE enhancement is provided through additional staffing. Portions of that MSOC allocation are intended to support district-wide costs, which are supposed to be covered through the 15% indirect rate.

If the legislature does not replace CTE enhanced funding CTE programs will lose the control of how & where to spend that money for the CTE programs statewide.

 As you can see it is important that we keep the CTE program funding or a lot of STEM programs will be lost due to funding issues and we ask you work with your caucus leadership and budget writers adopt and include the OSPI “CTE and Skill Center Program Funding, Accounting & Data Reporting” (http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/Reports.aspx )

 CTE policy support:

 PLEASE AMEND AND PASS SB 5082

Many school districts want an affordable Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) curriculum. Currently one program that has high rigor and relevance is the Project Lead the Way. Unfortunately the yearly cost of running this program has allowed it to only exists in school Districts with an average enrollment of 14,433 students district wide. More than 3/4's of the school districts in Washington have a high school enrollment of 3,000 students or less. Please amend the bill language to include other high quality STEM curriculums to allow more schools a choice and opportunity to offer a rigorous and relevant STEM curriculum.  

 One solution to this problem is a statewide license to be held by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instructions (OSPI) for (www.engineeringbydesign.org) and made available to schools that are interested in starting up and running this high quality STEM program.

 The International Technology & Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) has developed a K-12 curriculum that can be used in Washington State under a statewide issued license. This curriculum (Engineering by Design) has been implemented in 20 states and there is university and industry collaboration on the curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Engineering by Design teaches all students to think and learn engineering and use engineering concepts. Research suggests that a K-12 STEM curriculum be presented to help sustain student interest in CTE-STEM areas.

Amend and Pass SB 5082 so that K-12 STEM Education funding will allow the purchasing a Statewide Subscription of Engineering by Design ($23,999) License. Thus making the curriculum available to every school district in the state if they choose.