Last week Kim and I met with a Senate HELP Committee staffer to discuss the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).  During the meeting we talked about possible connections between WIA and Perkins.

We discussed WIA summer youth programs as a possible way to connect the programs.  Are there ways to connect summer jobs to CTE training so that kids have the opportunity to not only earn money over the summer and stay off the streets, but to actually gain skills that they can use later in life?

Aligning workforce and education systems and programs, like WIA and Perkins, was another important topic we discussed.  We emphasized that the Perkins and WIA accountability measures are just different enough to make collecting both sets of measures burdensome on states and eligible entities.  Measures that track the same outcomes should be better aligned.

The staffer was also particularly interested in how CTE is funded at every level – federal, state and local.  We explained that not all states track how much money local districts invest in CTE, but we understand that knowing those figures will give Congress a better sense of how much money actually goes to CTE programs.

We walked away feeling encouraged that the Senate wants to move quickly on the reauthorizing WIA, and that we may see something early next year.