Legislation that would reimagine how the state uses data to connect workers with jobs is done for the year.
Halls Representative Chris Hurt made the decision to take his bill off notice after discussing the legislation with the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration (F&A) and the work it’s already doing to create a public dashboard for workforce data.
“I appreciate F&A, they’ve been in constant discussion with us on this and I know they are working on this diligently with us and with the discussions we’ve had with them and their agreements to what we’ve discussed in moving forward to getting a timeline put on this to get it completed. I’m going to continue to have follow-up conversations with them and again, in the fall, maybe we won’t have to use this legislation moving forward and we can get this completed and get something set up,” said Representative Hurt.
Hurt’s legislation would have established an Education and Workforce Data Advisory Committee that looks at education and workforce data together and then makes it available to the public.
The committee would be made up of the commissioners of education and workforce-focused agencies that contribute data into the state’s system that monitors progress over time and includes information about K-12, higher education, and the state’s workforce.
F&A has expressed some concerns about the legislation and its Office of Evidence & Impact Director Christian Lotts told the House Education Committee her office already has a public dashboard in development.
F&A has an advisory committee in place working on a public dashboard, mirroring much of what the Hurt’s bill intended to do.
“We have been focused on modernizing the system since we have it in our purview,” said OEI director Christin Lotts.
Supporters of Hurts’ legislation envisioned it as a way to ensure businesses moving to Tennessee have the data it needs to assess the talent pipeline and to provide the public with access to information showing how well schools and higher education programs are preparing students for jobs.
