A newly developed state plan for the career and technical education in Mississippi has some at East Central Community College worried the college may see its funding cut.
Teresa Mackey, Vice President for instruction, shared her concerns with the school trustees Wednesday during their monthly board meeting, giving an overview of the plan and how it could affect the junior college.
“They’ve been working on this state plan for quite some time now,” she said. “A little over a year.”
Mackey said a representative from East Central joined representatives from community colleges and high schools from throughout the state, meeting for over a year with Mississippi Department of Education to develop a plan that would career and technical education meet students needs in the future.
“It was a great collaborative process,” she said. “We worked on outcomes and measures in that process until we got to the budget, and that became and independent thing.”
CTE programs are funded through Perkins V funds, Mackey explained. Secondary programs, those in high schools, receive 53 percent of the funds. Post-secondary programs, like the lineman school, diesel mechanic training and EMT courses at East Central, receive 47 percent of the funds. ECCC, Mackey said, uses its Perkins V funds to purchase supplies and update equipment, making sure students receive up-to-date, relevant training in their chosen field.
Under the new budget plan, however, secondary programs would receive 59.4 percent of the funds, with only 40.8 percent going to post-secondary programs such as East Central’s courses.
“That’s what has caused a little consternation for the community colleges, because that decrease there is significant,” Mackey said.
According to the budget, the funds taken from the community college’s portion of the Perkins V funds would go into a “reserve fund,” a new fund not included in previous year’s budgets and one not discussed with post-secondary and secondary CTE representatives.
Mackey said at a meeting Tuesday, East Central representatives learned the reserve funds would be used to create “career academies.” The issue, she said, is no one knows where the career academies will be located. There could be one in East Central’s district, but there might not. Additionally, she said, 100 percent of the reserve funds will go to high schools. None of the money will be available for community colleges.
CTE funding for Mississippi community colleges has decreased before, Mackey said, at an average rate of 1.4 percent. This change to the Perkins V budget would force East Central, and other community colleges throughout the state, to find ways to cope with a 14 percent decrease in CTE funding. Unfortunately, she said, that would most likely mean raising costs for students.
The proposed budget, which would take affect in 2021, has not been approved just yet, and Mackey said East Central had filed objections to the plan with MDE, which facilitates the Perkins V funds, as well as the offices of Lt. Gov. elect Delbert Hosemann and Governor elect Tate Reeves.
A period for public comments about the proposed plan is open until 5 p.m. today. The full plan can be viewed at https://www.mdek12.org/SSE/PerkinsV.
