UNITED STATES CONGRESSMAN 3rd DISTRICT, NEBRASKA TOM OSBORNE

Washington Round-up | Week of March 13, 2006

Career Education is Vital

A quality education is one of the most important things we can provide for our children. However, a good education should not only equip students with basic skills like reading and math, it should also help children prepare for life after school is over and students seek to begin their careers.

As our youth prepare to enter the workforce, career paths have undergone significant changes. In years past, it was not uncommon for older generations of Americans to work in one field for their entire career, perhaps only for one company. However, few of today’s workers can expect their careers to follow such a path in our rapidly changing economy, and we face particular challenges in Nebraska.

Here in the Third District, agriculture and its related industries continue to be the main source of employment and prosperity, but America’s ag sector is facing an increasingly competitive global environment. Like many other rural areas, the Third District also faces the challenge of retaining young people as many of our youth raised in rural areas move to larger population centers when the time comes to pursue a career.

A lack of opportunity, perceived or real, in rural areas is a major challenge that must be overcome as we look towards rural America’s future, and vocational and technical education can be part of the solution. Vocational education can help workers to stay ahead of economic developments by providing a highly trained workforce that will keep Nebraska’s economy ahead of the curve in a growing and changing economy.

Vocational education is being utilized in the Third District not just for high school guidance counseling, but for comprehensive career and technical education from junior high school to community colleges and continuing education programs, and many of these efforts are funded through federal grants provided through the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. This program is the key federal funding mechanism for vocational education, providing funding directly to the states for vocational education programs, including more than $8 million to Nebraska this year.

Because of the great importance of Perkins funds, I was greatly concerned by the President’s recommendation to eliminate all funding for the Perkins Program in next year’s budget. This would be a tremendous loss for educational institutions nationwide, many of which are already facing cuts in other areas of funding. Drying up another important source of funding would have a negative effect on our youth, particularly for small, rural education institutions in the Third District. Thankfully, another important program for rural schools of which I am the author and champion, the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) was left untouched in the President’s proposal this year.

Fortunately, I believe there is enough support in Congress to ensure the continued funding of the Perkins Act, and I intend to fight for its survival. We faced a similar situation last year when the President recommended elimination of Perkins funding, but I worked with my colleagues to ensure that funding for the Perkins Act was maintained.

Also, last year the House and Senate both approved bills to reauthorize the Perkins Act to strengthen and improve the program, and I was actively involved in that process from my position as vice-chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Education Reform. We still await the formation of a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the two bills, but I am confident that we can move forward on this bill this year to ensure the health of vocational education in future years.

In the President’s State of the Union speech in February, he spoke of the need to maintain America’s competitive edge in the global economy and this can best be accomplished through maintaining a highly trained workforce. As we move forward, we need to keep making the investments on the local, state and federal level to make sure that America’s economic prosperity is secure, and the future of our youth is bright.