Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that he wants to work with the Legislature to create eight regional councils to better coordinate and help guide the state’s fragmented workforce-training programs.
“There are multiple agencies with overlap and responsibility for workforce training, and there is not effective partnerships statewide with all of our educational institutions,” he said at a news conference in Little Rock.
Hutchinson, an attorney who is a former 3rd District U.S. congressman, later drew criticism from both Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross of Little Rock, a former 4th District U.S. congressman, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Curtis Coleman of Little Rock, a businessman.
Hutchinson said the regional workforce education councils that he wants to create would include economic developers, industry and business leaders, and educators to set priorities within their regions“for the jobs that they want to go after economically and [to determine] what the demand will be” and link them to skills training in high schools and two-year and technical colleges.
An existing 0.5 percent tax on corporate income over $100,000, totaling about $34 million a year, has been distributed by the state Department of Higher Education to these colleges through a funding formula, and Hutchinson supports directing this funding to specific and approved training programs rather than going into the general fund of the school that allows the money to be diverted to administrative and other costs, according to Hutchinson’s six-page workforce-training plan.
The candidate said he wants the regional workforce education councils to set priorities for how the state should spend the $34 million.
“I believe the problem is not a lack of money, but a lack of coordination, a lack of a clear plan and holding the educators and our trainers accountable,” he said.
Afterward, the state’s budget administrator, Brandon Sharp, said the two-year and technical colleges actually receive about $26.5 million a year in funding from that corporate income tax.
Hutchinson said his initiative would build upon Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s plan to make changes in the state’s workforce planning activities.
A month ago, Beebe said he agreed to consolidate the state’s fragmented workforce training activities, make them performance-based and boost their funding. In return, state Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, agreed to vote for legislation authorizing the use of federal funds to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans. The governor also agreed to boost funding for workforce training by $15 million in fiscal 2015 through various reallocations and one-time transfers from several sources of funds, according to a summary of his workforce-training initiatives.
Ross spokesman Brad Howard said job-training programs are in demand because of politicians like Hutchinson.
“After all, Congressman Hutchinson voted for trade policies that shipped our jobs overseas and lobbied for big corporations that outsourced good-paying jobs to countries like India and the Philippines,” said Howard.
Hutchinson spokesman Christian Olson said Howard’s criticism was “typical and predictable. … Instead of offering substantive proposals, the Ross campaign is foolishly attacking increasing trade for our Arkansas farmers and businesses.”
Coleman said it’s a compliment that Hutchinson “would think so much of my education policy … released on January 28 …. that he would try to dress it in a different set of clothes and call it his own.”
Olson replied that Hutchinson’s plan is the result of input from reputable leaders in workforce education, like Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and English, adding that “Mr. Coleman’s claim is ridiculous and his plan was not consulted.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lynette Bryant of Little Rock, who has been a substitute teacher, could not be reached by telephone for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/20/2014