Gov. Josh Shapiro talks up vo-tech spending at Greene careers center
Brad Hundt/Obsever-Reporter
PROSPERITY – Just two days after the rampant speculation about Josh Shapiro being the Democratic vice presidential nominee came to an end, the governor dropped in at the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Career Centers in Prosperity Thursday afternoon to talk about funding for workforce development and vo-tech programs that’s in the recently approved 2024-25 budget.
“There are lots of different paths to opportunity and success,” Shapiro said. “And for too long we’ve thumbed our nose at those paths.
He added, “All of those paths deserve our respect. And that is the approach I have taken as governor.”
While visiting the school, a nonprofit designed to provide vocational and technical training for adults, Shapiro ceremonially signed the portion of the budget that has a $30 million boost in funding for career and technical education funding. He characterized it as “a record amount of money” for vo-tech education, and said it was “one of the many problems that lingered for many years we’ve been able to address. If you focus on bringing people together, you create opportunity and you solve problems.”
The UMWA Careers Center, located on the northern edge of Greene County, was launched almost 30 years ago as a way to provide job training to out-of-work miners, but it now provides workforce training for adults in 11 counties in Pennsylvania that once heavily relied on mining and related industries. One area it has been offering training in recently is mechatronics, which combines electronics and mechanical engineering.
Clemmy Allen, the executive director of the center, said the programs offered there “put people on track for any kind of manufacturing job and it can press people on to robotics.”
Flanked by Shapiro, UMWA Careers Center participant Ed Helman explained that the training he received there “helped me into a new career and actively get ahead. People can find jobs with this.”
The state dollars going to career and technical education programs is part of the $47.6 billion budget Shapiro signed last month. Shapiro noted that the boost in funding to vo-tech programs was the result of “bipartisan compromise,” and he pointed out that he is the only governor in the country who works with a divided legislature – Republicans hold a solid majority in the state Senate, while Democrats have a thin majority in the House.
Shapiro’s appearance is one of the first he has made since Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was chosen to be the running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Shapiro was one of the finalists for the job, along with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly.
It’s widely believed that the final choice came down to Walz or Shapiro. When asked about Harris’ decision, Shapiro said, “I always said the vice president had a deeply personal decision on who she would select as a running mate. In the end, I had a deeply personal decision to make too. I love being governor of Pennsylvania.”