Rob: As school resumes this New Year, not everyone will be in the
classes that they want.
With an increasing shortage of teachers looming throughout the
state, the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education
System is facing a dilemma.
Approximately 1200 students are on waiting lists to enroll in
CareerTech programs, but there just aren't enough teachers to go around.
Rob: From the time she was a child, Cassie Pickens always knew what she
wanted to be when she grew up.
Cassie Pickens: I was always cutting my troll's hair and my, my-size
Barbie, which my mom didn't like too much.
Rob: Now a senior in high school, Cassie spends her afternoons learning to be
a professional hair stylist at Meridian Technology Center
in Stillwater.
Pickens: There are so many things I like about cosmetology.
I mean, the people are fun, you know, and the creative side of it.
Rob: Although many CareerTech students don't need to go on to four-year
universities, Cassie plans to attend OSU next year to study business and
management, her goal--to open her own salon one day.
Meanwhile, she stands to make up to $30 an hour as a stylist, while she
attends college.
Pickens: I'll be working as much as I can, and it's just a really great career
with all the expenses, because everyone has to get their hair done.
Rob: For twelve thousand other students, their turn at learning a marketable
skill is on hold.
Phil Berkenbile is the state director for CareerTech.
He says with so many students choosing not to go to college, CareerTech
is what stands between Oklahomans and low skill minimum wage jobs.
Phil Berkenbile: Students coming out of our programs can earn 30,000, 40,000,
50,000 dollars a year.
That's equal to a college graduate.
And they can do it in less than two years in some cases.
Rob: CareerTech figures show, of 100 ninth grade students,
less than half go on to college,
and 25 of those students won't even graduate from high school.
And Berkenbile says, not having enough skilled workers could cost the
state many of its largest employers.
Berkenbile: They need help now.
And if they don't get that help, they're going to close up, completely, or
they are going to move somewhere else.
And that's a loss to the state of Oklahoma that we can't afford.
Rob: So why are there almost 12,000 students on a waiting list to enter
these programs?
The answer is not enough funding from the state legislature.
Berkenbile says that's short sighted, because of the economic impact made
by each annual class of 11,000 CareerTech graduates.
Berkenbile: That class, over their lifetime earnings, is going to
contribute two-billion dollars to the state's economy, and a hundred and
seventy-six million in taxes.
That's a tremendous wake-up call for legislators.
Rob: Berkenbile says the way to get more funding is for business and industry
leaders to target our political leadership.
Berkenbile: I don't think it's a democrat issue or a republican issue.
I think it's making people aware of how good we are and what we do for the
state of Oklahoma.
Rob: Meanwhile, Berkenbile says the 12,000 students waiting list is a good
sign for our state.
If CareerTech programs weren't so effective, there wouldn't be so many
students trying to get in.