Senator Hassan Visits Career & Technical Center at Alvirne High School
HUDSON – In case you missed it, Senator Maggie Hassan visited the Palmer Career and Technical Education Center at Alvirne High School and heard from school administrators, teachers, and students about the programs offered at the Palmer Center.
They discussed how the Palmer Center has been working with employers in southern New Hampshire to address key industry needs – like a shortage of health care workers – and allow students to get valuable on-the-job training and develop the skills needed in our 21st century economy. Senator Hassan is working to pass into law bipartisan legislation which supports career pathways programs at community and technical colleges.
As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Hassan has focused on strengthening career pathways and workforce training programs. Senator Hassan helped pass into law the year-end government funding bill, which includes a $75 million increase to Perkins programs, which directly support career and technical education programs across the state including the Palmer Center.
The bill also more than doubled the Rural Postsecondary & Economic Development Program, a program Senator Hassan has advocated for that supports rural students, including college prep and career pathways programs. In addition, the bill included the largest increase in Pell Grants in over a decade, which Senator Hassan advocated for.
To read the Nashua Telegraph’s coverage of the visit, see below.
Hassan gets first-hand look at Alvirne High’s various CTE programs
By Dean Shalhoup
Alvirne High junior Tyler Reynolds was in the midst of helping several other students in the Heavy Duty Mechanics CTE program loosen bolts on a beat-up Chevy Silverado pickup truck when a visitor approached and asked him a couple of questions.
The visitor, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, one of the two Democrats who represent New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate, told Reynolds she was interested in learning more about the course, one of a dozen or so career-oriented courses that take place in Alvirne’s sprawling, two-story Palmer Career and Technical Education Center.
The purpose of Hassan’s visit was to hear from students like Reynolds, along with instructors and Alvirne administrators, about the CTE program and its specialized courses, which directly benefit from federal funds that Hassan has helped shepherd through the Senate and eventually become law.
Such is the case with some $75 million in funding for so-called Perkins programs that Hassan, as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, helped pass into law as part of the year-end government funding bill.
The Perkins programs directly support career and technical education programs across New Hampshire, including the Palmer CTE programs.
Currently, Hassan is working to pass into law bipartisan legislation that, if passed, would bring much-needed funding to the state’s career pathways programs at community and technical colleges.
A full story, and additional photos, will appear in this coming weekend’s Sunday Telegraph.
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