With many local businesses struggling to find skilled workers in technical fields, a local assemblyman is pushing legislation that would create a new graduation option for high school students in New York State. Assemblyman Sean Ryan is co-sponsoring legislation that would create a Career and Technical Education diploma for students interested in obtaining a vocational certification. Students would take Regents-approved CTE classes as electives, along with their core classes, and then take a technical assessment at the end of the year.
Ryan says passing that assessment would allow the students to earn an industry-recognized certification in any one of a number of fields.
"CTE students could pursue jobs such as computer systems, networking, medical assistance, nanotechnology, biosciences, advanced manufacturing, the list goes on and on and on. These fields are where the job openings are, and that's where we should be putting our emphasis and that's where we should be steering our high school students," Ryan said Wednesday, speaking at Curtis Screw Company in Buffalo.
Ryan says the option of a CTE diploma would boost graduation rates for students who aren't interested in pursuing a four-year college degree and allow them to enter the workforce right out of high school.
The Buffalo Democrat says the CTE diploma would place equal emphasis on college and career readiness, which he says is currently slanted more toward higher education. The proposal has earned the backing of local business groups and school superintendents.
"This is a huge issue. We have so many positions available in advanced manufacturing and in energy. The folks from National Grid has told us, just for just linemen getting on top of the poles, they have something like 10,000 openings, and these are great-paying jobs," Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Dottie Gallagher-Cohen said.
CTE programs already exist in Buffalo's public schools, where Superintendent Pamela Brown says the graduation rate is over 88 percent.
