Tennessee lawmakers support proposed change that prioritizes funding CTE programs that lead to high paying jobs

Officials from the Tennessee Department of Education met with lawmakers in the state’s Joint Government Operations Committee Wednesday to review rule changes relating to how the department determines funding for career and technical education (CTE) programs in the state, among other topics.

According to Tennessee Department of Education Director of Policy Jack Powers, the department has proposed changing the criteria used to determine direct funding levels for CTE programs under the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act, a bill  signed into law by Governor Bill Lee in 2022 that will invest billions in new education funding for the state to support programming such as vocational training. He said the department is now looking to update how it reviews and classifies CTE programs to ensure they align with the needs of occupations and industry employers, using data from the Tennessee Department of Labor Workforce Development. 

“The goal is to make sure that programs our students are accessing are identified and tiered appropriately based on a number of different factors,” he said. “Tiering CTE programs based on high-wage, high-demand and high skill score determinations - that’s one of the main revisions we’re talking about here today.” 

Powers said that under the proposed formula, a program's high-wage subscore, which determines what wages are earned from specific occupations, is weighted at 70 percent, while the high-demand subscore is weighted at 20 percent and the high skill subscore is weighted at 10 percent to help determine a CTE program’s overall score to determine funding needs. He said a level one CTE program could be something like cosmetology or culinary arts, while a level two program could be business management or finance. Level three programs would be high-demand occupations that require more complex skill sets and pay more, such as engineering or health sciences, among others. 

“These proposed revisions reflect input directly from CTE engagement groups that include members of the Tennessee General Assembly, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Tennessee Department of Labor, secondary CTE teachers, CTE directors, state board members and other external partners,” he said. “The idea is that, as you get higher in the levels, you’re talking about occupations that have a high demand, but also lead to a high wage and require high skill as well.” 

The committee voted in favor of a positive recommendation regarding the revisions. Reps. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville voted "no" against the motion. 

“I just feel like we’re discounting some of these [professions] people want to be directed to, and that concerns me a little, that everything is based on what wage they think you’re going to earn, when it doesn’t necessarily turn out that way,” Johnson said before voting against the motion. 

Once published in the register by Secretary of State, the funding rule change will take effect on June 23.