Kudos to the Maine Legislature for its efforts to expand career and technical education to middle schools.

L.D. 33, a bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Rafferty, D-Kennebunk, would allocate funding for existing career and technical education centers to provide programs for our middle school students. Earlier legislation set up pilot programs to test the need for career and technical education statewide. The results were so promising that the Department of Education developed a bill to expand it statewide: An Act to Expand Access to Career and Technical Education Opportunities for Middle School Students.

We know all our businesses need skilled workers to keep Maine growing and that need will only increase in the future. The skills needed by workers have changed from a few decades ago and businesses are finding it imperative that Maine schools offer students critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as technical training. It is extremely valuable for Maine students to be able to explore different fields of interest in their middle school years and to learn what opportunities are available to them.

Casey Cramton
president and CEO, Dead River Co.
South Portland

Related Headlines

Comments are no longer available on this story

filed under: