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Report of the Working Group on Workforce Preparation and Business Linkages

4.0 RESOURCES

K-12

4.1 Any proposed funding model must recognize in its K-12 formula for adequacy:

  • The costs of recruiting, education and professional development for staff in career technical programs, and contexualized learning; and

  • The costs associated with the instructional facilities and equipment required to delivering instruction in career technical programs.

Rationale: Many career technical classes are often smaller than academic classes, in part because the high cost of specialized instructional equipment and the potentially higher risk associated with equipment use. In addition to maintaining career technical facilities, schools must continually update equipment and materials. During testimony before a special hearing of the Joint Committee in 2001, career technical personnel reported that, "in many instances, these programs are using World War II vintage equipment salvaged from state surplus facilities in California".

These programs have been viewed as receiving a disproportionate share of school resources, both monetarily and personnel-wise and were more likely than college preparatory programs to be reduced during times of budgetary restraints. Because this loosely connected system of programs has been less coherent in the past, it is conveniently subject to cutbacks.

Throughout numerous discussions, the general tenor of the group reflected a major focus of the April 2001 Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) report, which highlights the necessity of "adequate resources". Regarding the potential development of an "adequacy formula" associated with the development of a statewide funding model, if there is a minimum cost threshold associated with providing career technical programs, the following is instructive for California: "on average, the enrollment of smaller districts is not sufficient to ensure a minimum level of instructional quality...and states can address this problem by including an explicit adjustment factor in the vocational formula, as Texas has done, to ensure that small and mid-sized districts are not penalized." [24]

Postsecondary

4.2 Consideration should be given to granting the educational segments flexibility in their internal allocation of funds to address the higher costs associated with career, technical and scientific instruction and contextualized learning more broadly. Specifically:

  • The differential cost of recruiting, education and retaining teachers, faculty and support staff in career, technical and scientific disciplines;

  • The differential costs associated with the instructional facilities and equipment required to deliver instruction in career, technical and scientific fields; and

  • The differential costs associated with contextualized learning, including laboratory, field and applied industry experiences.

Rationale: Because of the dynamics of Proposition 98, greater strategic planning is particularly important to higher education in California to alleviate the uncertain nature of postsecondary funding during the annual budget construction, especially in years of statewide economic distress.

At the CCCs and universities, costs for instruction in areas critical to California's workforce needs have outpaced the support available. For instance, the funding formula in community colleges is based on equality. This means nursing programs are very expensive to operate but are funded at the same level as the low cost programs.

Specific strategies are needed to ensure that colleges and universities are able to recruit and retain faculty and technical staff in high demand scientific, engineering, and technical fields to provide advanced information technology infrastructure and to purchase and maintain sophisticated laboratory equipment. Inadequate resources in these areas contribute to extended time to graduation, high attrition rates, and enrollments that are below the levels required to stabilize the workforce.

Business members noted public organizations are particularly responsive to financial incentives and recommended that the Joint Committee give consideration to providing incentives for increasing the number of graduates in high cost fields which are key to the economy, such as computer science, once a performance measurement system is in place. This approach, rather than regulation or traditional manpower planning models, is a better way to align institutions with the labor market. It is impossible for a governmental process to predict where new discoveries will occur, so the institutions need the additional flexibility to concentrate resources in emerging and promising fields.

Table of Contents
Summary Introduction 1. Integration 2. Alignment
3. Accountability 4. Resources 5. Private Conclusion
References Charge Members Notes