PA 07-40—sSB 1283

Education Committee

AN ACT CONCERNING THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON CONNECTICUT'S TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS

SUMMARY: This act expands the membership of, and changes the types of entities that must be represented on, the statewide advisory committee for regional vocational-technical (V-T) high schools. It expands the committee's duties and changes them to reflect a focus on workforce needs. Finally, it requires the committee to meet at least semiannually. There were no meeting requirements under prior law.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2007

ADVISORY COMMITTEE DUTIES

The act requires the advisory committee to:

1. identify emerging state and national workforce needs, and trade technology programs for the V-T system to meet those needs;

2. identify the workforce skills that will be needed for the next 30 years and ensure that the V-T system curriculum incorporates those skills;

3. ensure that all students who graduate from the V-T system have communication, leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills and expertise in a trade technology;

4. assess the adequacy of the resources available to the V-T system as it develops and refines programs to meet workforce needs; and

5. advise and make recommendations to the State Board of Education (SBE) to carry out these duties.

Under prior law, the committee had to make recommendations to the SBE on meeting the skill needs of employers, strengthening the role of school craft committees, expanding alternative technical training models for certain students, and new trade programs.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

The act decreases the number of legislative appointments from 12 to 10 by requiring the House and Senate minority leaders to appoint one member each, rather than two. The governor, House speaker, and Senate president pro tempore continue to appoint two members each and the House and Senate majority leaders to appoint one member each.

The act requires all of the appointees to represent businesses, holding the title of chief executive, president, chief operating officer, or the equivalents, drawn from key industry, service, and manufacturing firms. The four representatives appointed by the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore must be from firms with more than 1,000 full-time employees; the three appointed by the House majority and minority leaders and the Senate majority leader must be from firms with between 500 and 1,000 full-time employees; and the three appointed by the Senate minority leader and the governor must be from firms with fewer than 500 full-time employees. Under prior law, the appointees had to include four members of the public, two board of education members, three representatives of the business community, and three representatives of the labor community.

The act also expands the committee's membership from 12 to 19 members to include (1) the education, labor, and economic development commissioners, or their designees; (2) the SBE chairperson, or his designee; (3) an Office of Workforce Competitiveness representative; and (4) the Education Committee chairpersons and ranking members. As was already required by law, the committee membership must reflect the state's geographic, racial, and ethnic diversity.

OLR Tracking: SC: SS: PF: RO