Maryland is ramping up education spending, and as that happens many people are asking why a program to teach students a trade in Baltimore City didn’t continue.
The program was deemed a success by some, but it lasted just one summer.
For eight years, Boyd Rutherford served as Maryland’s lieutenant governor. In that time, he felt he accomplished a lot. But one thing he couldn’t get done still troubles him.
“It’s still frustrating,” Rutherford told FOX45 News.
Rutherford says about five years ago, he personally called Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Santelises to tell her about a trade school program offered by the Home Builders Institute. The program is called PACT, or Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training. According to HBI, PACT operates around the country serving 35,000 students and instructors nationwide.
“We have a shortage and had a shortage of skilled labor and it’s been going on for a long period of time,” explained Rutherford.
PACT, according to HBI’s website, is an award-winning curriculum that “guarantees every student masters the knowledge needed to be employed in an entry-level job in the building industry.” It offers students instructor training and certification in trades, such as carpentry, electrical and plumbing. With Rutherford’s support, HBI offered the program in Baltimore City. All the school system had to do was provide the space.
In the summer of 2020, the district piloted the program at Carver Vocational-Technical High School. The Home Builders Institute offered the program to veterans and former inmates.
But the curriculum was mostly geared toward youth who were under the supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. For those students, the program was free.
“You’re killing two birds with one stone. You’re giving kids a direction who are in the regular programs. But the kids who have gotten themselves in trouble and may be looking for a future, an opportunity in the evening to develop these skills.”
In the summer of 2020, Rutherford visited the program at Carver. He said it was a success.
“That program went really well,” said Rutherford.
But it only lasted that one summer.
“I think it was just a missed opportunity, and I blame it on the bureaucracy,” Rutherford told FOX45 News.
So, what happened?
That depends on who you ask. The Homebuilders Institute told FOX45 News the program was discontinued because the state declined to provide funding. But officials at the Department of Juvenile Services said the program was never intended to receive state funding and it never went through the state-mandated procurement process to receive money.
Then, there’s city schools, which told FOX45 News, “Carver did serve as a site for the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) to run a summer HBI program for one year in 2020. Following that year, DJS relocated to another site (Living Classrooms) for future summers.”
That’s three entities with three different stories.
FOX45 News reached back out to HBI to ask if the program had been relocated, and in a statement, the organization wrote back, “Our team is not aware of the program being moved and if it did, it was not in connection with HBI or PACT.”
“It was like knocking your head up against a wall at a certain point that they just really had roadblock after roadblock to the point of just disinterest,” explained Rutherford.
Just months after PACT appears to have been discontinued, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which overhauls public education while increasing school funding statewide by billions of dollars. The Blueprint specifically calls for an increased focus on career and technology training, but Baltimore had a program that was initially offered for free to help some of the state’s most vulnerable children, and the program lasted one summer.
“It was very disappointing that it was something I thought you could just try, you know, give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, then you move on,” Rutherford told FOX45 News. “But, you know, your existing programs are not necessarily providing the skill set that these kids need.”
Why exactly this program was discontinued is still somewhat of a mystery. The Homebuilders Institute, Baltimore City Schools and DJS all say something different.
