With Diminishing Career Technical Education Opportunities in USVI Schools, Board Seeks $600,000 from Government

Career and technical education opportunities continue to dwindle in the territory, mostly due to teacher shortages and lack of funding, said Joane Murphy, chair of the territory’s Board of Career and Technical Education. “We are facing a significant problem. We are losing our CTE instructors and those positions are not being readily filled due to a teacher shortage, especially in CTE were former instructors can double their teacher salary and private industry,” Ms. Murphy told lawmakers on Monday.‌ She was testifying before the Senate committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance, defending her agency’s FY 2025 budget request of $1,284,681. That sum includes just under $690,000 to support personnel and other operating costs for the board, as well as an additional $600,000 in funding for pilot programs aimed at reversing the decline.‌ “Since 2002, CTE programs have been reduced by 50%,” Ms. Murphy disclosed, contrasting the six or seven pre-CTE programs available in each junior hig...