Technical education in jeopardy
"Anytime you do not give people an opportunity to succeed, you're setting them up for failure."
Washington Mayor Joseph Pitre says technical education programs are vital to giving students an opportunity to succeed in the workforce.
"They graduate from high school or they drop out of school with no marketable skills attractive to prospective employers."
Washington Career and Technical Education Center principal Tracy Beard says these technical programs provide students who don't plan to go to college with skills in fields like nursing and electronics.
"It's a big advantage to students to have this opportunity to come and get a jump start on a career. If they don't have this opportunity, I think a lot more of them would be dropping out."
Pitre and Beard say the loss of these programs would not only be detrimental to the students in the parish, but it would also hurt employers all over the state looking for skilled workers with technical experience.
"Unemployment is high yet there are companies looking for workers, they can't find them and the reason is that training that they need, they don't have," says Beard.
The St. Landry Parish School Board will likely consider the cut when the school system prepares for the new fiscal year which begins July 1.
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