Senate Bill S7357

                                BILL NUMBER:S7357

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to establish a temporary commission on career
technical education to examine and assess the feasibility and advis-
ability of establishing a professional trade diploma for completion of a
secondary education; and providing for the repeal of such provisions
upon expiration thereof

PURPOSE:

To create a commission to determine the practicality of creating a new
professional trade high school diploma.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 establishes a temporary commission on career technical educa-
tion to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the creation of a
professional trade diploma upon completion of secondary education. The
commission shall have particular focus on creating a diploma for
students who successfully complete the necessary career technical educa-
tion in a particular trade or career so as to qualify the student for
employment in the field of study. Additionally, the commission will
create circumstances for students to receive a professional trade diplo-
ma without the student's completion of certain requirements for a
regents or local diploma

              

Section 2 establishes the provisions for the creation of the commission.
The commission will have thirteen members with five members appointed by
the governor, two members appointed by the temporary president of the
senate, two members appointed by the speaker of the assembly, one member
appointed by the minority leader of the senate, one member appointed by
the minority leader of the assembly, one member each appointed by the
chair of the education committee of the senate and the assembly respec-
tively.

Section 3 provides the commission with the authority to hold meetings
and public hearings along with all the powers of a legislative committee
in accordance with the legislative law.

Section 4 establishes that members of the commission shall not receive
compensation for their services expect for covering the actual and
necessary expenses incurred to perform their duties.

Section 5 provides the commission with access to facilities, resources,
and data of any state or political subdivision that the commission could
reasonably request to utilize in performing the duties necessary.

Section 6 requires the commission to submit a report to the governor and
the legislature regarding its findings, within three hundred days of the
effective date.

Section 7 is the enacting clause.

JUSTIFICATION:

Currently with the educational focus on standardized testing and the
implementation of Common Core, New York State is missing out on an
opportunity to support students with career oriented skills that may
excel in fields which do not show up on the standardized tests.
Students are not all the same and therefore cannot be arbitrarily
expected to fit the same mold. Instead of focusing on pushing students
to pass a single subject regents exam, New York State should recognize
students gaining technical and career skills in ever expanding fields
such as medical professions, culinary fields, mechanical fields, or
professional certification as a worthy achievement paramount to satis-
factory grades on an exam. Students who pass down a skill and career
oriented path, should not be withheld from receiving a diploma because
of academic scores. Rather, they should be given the opportunity to
graduate from their secondary education and utilize the skills they
acquired to obtain gainful employment in instances where the career or
technical skill they obtained through this newly created degree program
would be sufficient for such students to maintain post secondary educa-
tion employment. Certain students may aspire to be scholars, and others
may aspire to learn a trade.  While these circumstances exemplify vari-
ous types of students, each student shares the goal of graduating
secondary education in New York and should be provided the opportunity
to do so while respectively pursuing their long term goals.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Undetermined.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed
repealed 1 year after it shall have become a law.