House amends Staats legislation to include career and technical education bills

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently amended House Bill 265, which is designed to improve access to information about the transfer policies of educational institutions, to include a bipartisan package of career and technical education (CTE) bills.

The CTE legislation would create an online career resource center; inventory existing workforce development programs that focus on business-education partnerships and establish best practices to improve these efforts; allow occupational advisory committees to be established at Intermediate Units (IU) to ensure integration of industry standards into instructional programming; and create a grant program to encourage employers to develop apprenticeships.

“My colleagues on both sides of the aisle and I have worked on this package of CTE bills all session, and I am thrilled to have that language added to my bill,” Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks), who introduced H.B. 265, said. “This legislation will improve opportunities for business-education partnerships that will provide family-sustaining jobs for our graduates and the workforce needed to attract job creators to the Commonwealth.”

H.B. 265 would expand an existing online database maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to provide students with improved access to information on the transfer policies between public schools and institutions of higher education.

Under current law, PDE maintains a database and portal that displays articulation agreements entered into by community colleges, institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and other institutions that choose to participate.

H.B. 265 would require all public schools, including school districts, intermediate units, vocational-technical schools, charter schools, cyber charter schools, state-related institutions, Northern Pennsylvania Regional College and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, to submit articulation agreements to PDE to be included in the database.

“By providing our students with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their educational options, they can plan where courses, programs, certificates, and diplomas transfer among public schools, colleges, and universities before committing their time and precious resources,” Staats said.

The bill now heads back to the Senate on concurrence.