Deadline closing in for Kehoe to act on education bill
Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Gov. Mike Kehoe has until the end of June to act on Senate Bill 150, a large secondary and higher education bill covering a wide range of topics, including grants for STEM education, degree authorizations and the addition of several student aid programs.
A major part of the bill is the Career-Tech Certificate program. If signed, the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development would establish a program to reimburse eligible students at two-year community colleges and tech schools for their tuition, textbooks and school fees.
Missouri has student grant programs like the A+ Scholarship and Access Missouri Financial Assistance. Current programs however, focus on students pursuing two and four-year degrees, not a shorter-term licensing process. The certificate program aims to bridge that gap and catch additional students pursuing a trade.
“Being an HVAC repair person or an HVAC installer, getting a commercial driver’s license is a very intensive process,” Mark Jones, the Communications Director for the Missouri National Education Association, said. “It allows students to go into fields that are not necessarily traditionally a two-year college or a four-year college, but do require intense certification and training.”
Eligible higher-education students must be enrolled in a community college or technical school certificate program that participates in the state’s A+ Scholarship Program, have completed the FAFSA and have a clean criminal record. Eligible students must also complete 90% of the required course hours.
During Kehoe’s State of the State address, he pitched building Missouri’s career and technical education opportunities, including $15 million in new funding to career and technical centers across the state.
Director of Ranken Technical College satellite campuses Randy Gooch said that openings in skilled trades have never been higher.
“When you need an electrician, you need an electrician, when you need a plumber, you need a plumber those are things that are very stable but very, very important,” Gooch said. “We realize that the aging workforce that we’re experiencing as they age out, the demand, the need is there.”
According to Advance CTE, a little under 29% of all degrees awarded statewide are in career technical education. The group also found that around 32% of students enrolled in postsecondary career or technical programs come from economically disadvantaged families.
Kehoe’s office did not immediately respond to a request for information from ABC 17 News. Kehoe was in France on a trade mission on Wednesday.
The deadline for Kehoe to endorse or veto the bill is July 1. If he does neither, the bill will still pass.