ST. REGIS – Mineral County educators, including one from St. Regis, are hoping the Montana State Senate passes a bill that could see funding for Career and Technical Education (CTE) increase ten fold.

According to the Montana Office of Public Instruction website, there are over 500 CTE programs in the state with over 800 certified teachers educating students in agriculture, business, marketing, industrial technology as well as health, family and consumer sciences. Bill 356 is currently in the Montana House of representatives and is expected to come up for a vote in coming weeks.

St. Regis High School teacher Brandon Braaten said he hopes the bill passes because, if it does, the budget for career and technical education courses could go up from just over $5,000 last year to over $50,000. He also said other Mineral County schools will also benefit if lawmakers decide to pass the bill.

“The purpose of the bill is to increase funding for career and technical education,” Braaten said. “It would go from $1 million annually to $10 million annually. It’s a significant increase in funding. So, instead of the St. Regis School District receiving $5,106 for career and technical education, we’d receive $51,000.”

Braaten said the bill has backing from a wide variety of business and technical organizations as well as strong support from Montana Representative Nicholas Schwaderer. He said labor unions are also in favor of the bill because of the additional training future employees will have access to at the high school level.

“Basically what this does is increase the number of people that are trained and increases the ability of educators to train students for careers in the trades,” Braaten said. “We are seeing a tremendous amount of need for this. There is a need for skilled workers.”

Braaten said, if the bill passes, the first thing the money could be used for is upgrading equipment and purchasing new equipment that is current with industry standards that students would actually find in the workplace.

“I always use our welders as an example,” Braaten said. “The students can train with them but they do not reflect the equipment that they would be using in their careers. ”

Braaten said, if the bill passes, the money would be allocated starting next year.