SB 112 Establishes career and technical education investment council

03/04/2015
SB 112 VOTE:NO
Died in Committee

Senate Committee On Workforce
Public Hearing held  2/25/2015

Fiscal Responsiblity
This bill should not be approved. The concept of returning to non-professional studies, such as shop, mechanics, technology and so on is to be desired and needed, but this bill requires an extensive bureaucracy, the development of “the STEM Investment Council” (Section 6) (1). Furthermore, the lack of proper funding, “subject to availability” (SECTION3) (2 & 3), indicates that more funding will be required in the near future.

Limited Government
This bill deals with the creation of a whole new program (STEM) and a new level of bureaucracy. It proposes to reintroduce vocational and technical programs back into the school system. This type of program has been cut from public schools over the last two or three decades in order to save funds or spend them elsewhere. Now they come up with a new program which will necessitate more state funding and a larger bureaucracy to oversee the program. These programs should be controlled at the local school level and funding should come from the already established budgets. A good opportunity to reduce administrators and add teachers.
Local Control
Schools continue to lose input and control from parents and the local community. The Legislature continues to pass bills that place more and more control in the hands of administrators and bureaucrats at the state level.