A recent debate over how the state funds adult education programs was demonstrated further in the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s presentation about oil and gas.
Director Wanetta Ayers presented information about the future of the oil and gas industry.
Ayers: “Now you’ve probably heard the department use this metric before that 1 in 5 jobs in Alaska requires a college degree. However its also true that about 60% of all the jobs in the next decade are going to require more than a high school deploma.”
Ayers went on to lay out the specifics of the Alaska Technical Vocational Education Program and the State Training and Employment Programs, two of the biggest existing post secondary and adult training programs which equal $10.2 million and are funded by employee contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Trust.
Through House Bill 278 Governor Sean Parnell supports the reauthorization of TVEP for 10 years.
The argument against funding adult training comes from legislators like Sen. Mike Dunleavy of Wasilla who says the money should be going to constitutionally mandated K-12 public schools.
Sen. Dunleavy(R-Wasilla): “I think we just merely move money from adult training into education, because it’s not constitutionally-mandated. We move money from labor training into funding the children first, and we look at those areas that are not constitutionally-mandated, a lot of grants to recipients, etc. etc. We move it into education first. We fund education first.”
Over the last four years the Anchorage School District has reduced its work force by 419 positions not including the newest cuts for the 2014-15 school year announced in January.
Currently the Kenai Peninsula School District is operating at a projected $4.2 million dollar deficit.
