Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: Good morning, everyone. This is the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. It is Friday, 01/16/2026, at 09:05 in the morning. So we will start our day with hearing reports from our legislative interns. Cabot and Bailey would like to go first.

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: Good morning, everybody. My name is Bailey Davis. I'm one of the interns for the committee here. So my task this week was looking into the requirements to become a CTE educator, which is technical educators, so people who teach trades, different healthcare fields, stuff like that. So what I did first, I looked into the current requirements here in Vermont. So there's something called the apprenticeship license here in Vermont, which is issued to the person so they can teach while also working on those other professional development tasks, completing the other required professional development. The professional development refers to you know, going to stuff like the career and technical teacher education program, which covers essential just teaching skills, classroom skills, stuff like that, to be just a teacher. But with that being said, there also has to be a requirement for you to actually be a, you know, in the field that you want to teach, be a skilled person. Know, obviously you got to kind of know what you are teaching. So in this case, Vermont does a licensure portfolio which demonstrates mastery in some of the core educational standards in the area that they want to teach. So when it comes to the basic, like just teaching skills, they follow Praxis Core, which is used, I think, pretty much nationwide for teaching requirements in, you know, stuff like language, math, whatnot, just, you know, basic teaching skills. The requirements include a high school diploma plus six years of working experience, but like a lot of other states, which I'll get into later, you can also have an associate's degree with a little bit less of work experience, just four years, And then there's also some different programs for bachelor's degrees and stuff like that with even less work experience. Vermont is actually interesting. It's a little bit different than other states in the sense that it has a very flexible reciprocity when it comes to licensure. A lot of other states don't necessarily accept all licenses, but Vermont does. Then I'll get into New Hampshire. New Hampshire is similar in the sense that showing demonstrated competencies via a portfolio is important in getting your license. So the routes are very similar, including the degree requirements. So you could just go in with a high school diploma or a bachelor's degree or a GED, but you need way more work experience. So I think it's around four years, eight thousand hours of paid experience if you're going in with a GED or high school diploma. Meanwhile, if you have a bachelor's degree, for example, you don't necessarily need work experience. You just need the bachelor's degree to be in the area that you're trying to teach. In addition, know associate's degree as well. That's just less work experience than say someone who's going in as you know having a high school diploma or a GED. So when it comes to reciprocity in New Hampshire, they're part of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education, which every state is a part of. So they accept licenses with all, you know, every state in that organization, which is every state in the country, plus territories, even armed forces, so like in Europe and stuff like that. So Maine, again very similar. A lot of these regimes are very similar, but there are stuff that I'll get into later that Vermont could do, and that relates to Act 127, which again we'll get into later. But first I'm going cover Maine. Maine allows experts to teach while finishing requirements through something called a conditional certificate, and like I said, very similar. The requirements for getting that includes a bachelor's degree in that related field, associate's degree plus work experience, and of course a GED or high school diploma plus more significant work experience. And once again, they're part of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education. So now I'm going to get into Act 127. So the main thing that Act 127, I'm sure many of you obviously are familiar with it being signed into law on 2022. So in Section 17, I believe, Act 127, it covers the recommendation. So there's a study that was authorized and that study recommended to create a single CTE district replacing what we have now to 17 different districts which kind of operate under different jurisdictions and different control. So the recommendation actually I can just read some of that. It's not directly from it, but it's kind of my summary. Since the current framework of 17 individual governance structures for CTE programs within Vermont is recommended to be consolidated to either one statewide CTE district or several regional BOCES, which stands for boards of cooperative educational services. So that would obviously bring everything under kind of one jurisdiction and make it easier for stuff like funding and whatnot and just like control of standards. So there's a growing interest amongst people who are interested in becoming a CTE educator in raising kind of that level, raising that licensure to the level of like a master's degree or a doctor's degree for salary purposes. And the hope with that is that, you know, we have a teacher shortage right now, particularly in these fields. I mean, have a tradesperson shortage in general, so you know trying to get people to become educators in the trades is even harder than you know just finding people for trades in general. So if we were to kind of make that CTE license, qualifications of have the same weight as a doctor's degree or a master's degree. I would be able to, and especially for salary purpose, like I said earlier, that would hopefully bring more people into that area and sort of want to go that direction. So yeah, that pretty much concludes what I researched for this week. Are there any questions?

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: The part

[Unidentified Committee Member]: of this conversation about raising the wages. So can you go a little deeper to that because that's

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: a very intriguing

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: Yeah, so obviously, again, don't know, obviously all the details. I can give you more information at a later time, but I know for teachers, like if you have a master's degree, for some districts is like the minimum, but then if you get a doctor's degree, your salary tends to increase with that. I know at my school district, is obviously in Massachusetts, but for my school district the highest paid teachers were always the ones who had the doctor's doctorates degree. So even if it was in a subject like music, the idea is if it was if these certifications were to be held in the same regard as say a doctorate's degree, you'd be able to, you know, kind of, I guess, cause salary increases by just holding those degrees in the same regard or those certifications in the same regard.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: It's a double edged sword.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I know, but I mean, it definitely would.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Because you put barriers to entry, you have fewer people who are eligible, and part of the scarcity is what drives up the wages. But we have scarcity right now, and so we need to figure out how to bring more people into the profession and not how to make it harder to get into the profession.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I misunderstood what he was saying then. I was So thinking that

[Unidentified Committee Member]: what he's saying is you get paid more when you have more education, which is the way it is set up. But it doesn't mean that's the only way you could get paid more. It's just system is be as a yes right now.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I'm interested in how long So let's say you were getting into the field. You have the high school diploma, the six years of experience in the field, and you're going to go through the apprenticeship, provisional license, what is the time period that it takes to become a certified teacher?

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: I think it varies. I can give you specific numbers at a later time, but I think it obviously varies because I think what happens is people go fromat least from my researchpeople go from being actual tradespeople, having that real world experience, and they say, okay, now I want to become an educator, for example. And so, I mean, it can vary. I think it depends on how fast they complete the requirements. A lot of time then it can be a shorter window depending on their ability to get those requirements done.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And is it done through the Vermont State College system?

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: Yeah, it depends. There are multiple different pathways, that's one. There are different actual technical schools, obviously. I know New Hampshire has a more centralized one, the New Hampshire Technical Institute. They have a specific CTE program that provides all the requirements that are needed by the New Hampshire Department of Education. They're more centralized, but for us, it's kind of more spread out in those options.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: Very

[Unidentified Committee Member]: interesting. So I can't remember if you talked about provisional licenses. Did that come up in the discussion about, you know, how to get more CTE instructors, teachers

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: more quickly, things like that?

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: Yeah. The whole goal, I think, with the recommendation, I know we were talking about it just a little bit ago with the salary increases. That's what the

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: through recommendation

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: the study. Of course, are other, like the centralized, making it more centralized process, making it more streamlined.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: We've heard a lot that it's really hard to get instructive students in education centers. So I was just curious about in terms of way to get more teachers more quickly as long as you're on the road to, you know, getting your licenses. Did

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: did that come up at all?

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: No, I can look into it. Don't, yeah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I think along those lines, that would be really helpful, is what states have done that, and how do we, if there's a way, how do we mirror that? Because that's what we need. We need to be able to get more teachers teaching in our CTE programs quickly.

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: I know it's very difficult because especially, I mean, you see some of these requirements, like four years, eight thousand hours, stuff like that. I mean, it's hard to find, like I was saying earlier, it's hard to find skilled tradespeople in general. Know, never mind people want to, you know, teach other tradespeople instead of making, you know, tons of money, so it can be definitely hard.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: You look at also if there's any other states that have a system set up in their CE centers, similar to how electricians and plumbers if you want to be If you're a journeyman, you have to work underneath a master electrician. Yeah. Do they are there are there places that allow for those CTE teachers to work under the license of, say, the director or another teacher? That's a

[Bailey Davis, Committee Intern]: good idea. I can look into that. Yeah. I looked into a lot of states, even going to Colorado, Montana, just states all across the country, a lot of them have very similarit seems like a lot of the regimes are very similar in the sense that it's that kind of work requirement plus either associate's degree, high school degree. I think what differs a lot of time is just the actual authority, the actual jurisdiction when it comes to licensure.

[Cabot Sales, Committee Intern]: Alright. Cabot Sales. Good morning. Other committee intern from UVM. What my task was this week was again to, review and track what's going on in the Senate Committee, Economic Development, Housing in general. So I'll go through day by day. Tuesday was their overview and update of the land use review board, which Bailey discussed last week, so I'm not gonna go into that. Wednesday, they discussed s one ninety eight, which is an act relating to the regulation and taxation of tobacco products and tobacco substitutes. The issue they were really addressing is increased youth using tobacco substitutes, and they're trying to address that by increasing tax stamps on nicotine products that have over five milligrams of nicotine in them and also increasing the penalty for unlicensed sellers for first and second offense. And they're getting rid of penalties for illegal use, so they're focusing more on penalizing sellers rather than youth who get caught with the product. Did they have a conversation about Internet sales? They did. So Internet sales are supposed to only be to bison sellers right now. I don't know if there was anything in the bill that addressed Internet sales, but I I I believe the penalty related to sellers larger penalty for unlicensed sellers was supposed to address the issue with Internet sales as well.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Do a update because last year, was a pretty nice amount of money that we received from the fines and

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: But, Frank, wasn't Well, that was over a number of years. Oh, was it over a couple years? Pilot project that was done with the attorney general's office at with liquor lottery. Still a nice money. Yeah. And and a small amount of money, they were able to bring it.

[Cabot Sales, Committee Intern]: The specific fine increases are $200 to $2,000 for first offense, 500 to 5,000 for second offense. So just 10 times. Too far away from I don't think well, they I mean, the ones they were finding, they

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: were going after them on the consumer protection, which is on a little more yeah. A little more

[Cabot Sales, Committee Intern]: robust. Any more questions on that? Alright. Tourism and marketing, this was just a general update. So, really, the highlight here was we wanna keep drilling into tourism and marketing, $300,000,000 in tax revenue in 2024 from tourism. They focused a lot on advertising efforts, which were very effective. 10% increase in considering Vermont as a destination when they were exposed to ads and over 30% increase in that consideration when they remembered the ads and some ROI for their last winter campaign return on investment. They saw a 145,000 roughly trips from people who would not otherwise have gone to Vermont as a result of the ag campaign. And that was they saw a $2,000 average spend. The campaign cost $538,000, and the return on total economic impact was roughly 57,000 percent and 4,000 percent tax revenue return investment from that ad campaign. So they are talking about keeping that going. Moving on Vermont futures project, Kevin Chiu came in to discuss the Vermont competitiveness data dashboard that came out. There were some negative highlights about Vermont's economic standing on that dashboard, and Chew stated that data is not destiny, but it could be destiny if we don't do anything. So that was kind of the overall message. Things look a little glum, but it doesn't have to be that way. This is just the data. They so the dashboard compares Vermont to other states on a lot of composite indices, which rank it economically, various things. Housing and population were highlighted. Specifically, he discussed aging population and how the average size of the household decreases when there's an aging population. And because of that, there aren't even enough houses being built here to accommodate the folks that already live here, not even to account for people who might move here. And he also discussed that the data shows there are lots of young people who do want to move to Vermont. Vermont has a very high quality of life, and that's attractive to people. However, the opportunities are not there. And that led him to suggest large businesses developing those is the biggest way to increase the average wage according to data. So suggesting strategies to help large businesses develop more and offer more opportunities to the young people who do actually wanna move here. You also discussed the the program that pays college graduates, who stay in Vermont and specifically that 68% of jobs in Vermont don't require a bachelor's degree. So that program actually misses all the graduates of CTE programs or associate degree graduates who don't get that benefit when they stay here after they graduate. Moving on to Chamber of Commerce. This was another priorities and overview. Their large priorities again were tourism, workforce and housing, and increasing the export manufacturing business in Vermont. They've seen declines in Vermont manufacturing exports over one year being greater than what they projected the decline to be over ten years. So that is a concern and something they would like to see change. They also talked a lot about the increasing efficiency in the business permitting process and hiring an outside organization to do a study of what is the process that a business goes through in Vermont from when they apply for a permit to when they actually get a permit? And are there duplicate applications and processes going on? Is that process so inefficient that there could be a lot of benefit gain from addressing that? They also discussed workforce shortages, and they're going to be working with the Office of Workforce Development on that. The Agreement on Jobs Retention Program, which is the cash program. They're asking for the same amount last year that they got last year, which is 1 and a half million. And they want to raise awareness about that program because they believe more people could be taking advantage of that than are aware that it exists. Strengthening the hospitality workforce was especially significant to the chamber. And the chair, Clarkson, discussed interest in a new culinary institute coming back to Vermont since we don't have that now. And then automation. So manufacturing, they proposed to put together a task force that would support research and development for automation in Vermont without displacing the workforce, but increasing that as a lot of the workforce does age out of manufacturing roles and helping companies move towards more automation. Moving on to Thursday, the first discussion was s one seventy three, an act related to workers' compensation and the Vermont Labor Relations Board. So the primary aspect of this bill is removing the mandatory screening process for injured workers who are eligible for vocational rehabilitation services. And the issue there is that workers who are injured and are eligible for these rehabilitation services have to go through this screening process that takes a long time. And often they might get rejected for various reasons or deemed ineligible through this screening process for illegitimate reasons, and there are a variety of reasons for that. They also wanna increase awareness of rehabilitation programs that exist because they see a lot of people getting injured, and then just not getting better on their own, not taking advantage of the, the services that already are there for them. So they wanna make it easier for people to take advantage of those services.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: Yeah. How long will you be around here? Are you heading back to Burlington right off? Nope. Would you be available to come back in after the floor? Yeah. To finish up, I wanna make sure we hear everything. Yeah. We have to get to the floor. Sure. If you have if you can be here, that's great.

[Cabot Sales, Committee Intern]: Okay. I can finish then.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So we're on the floor. Third reading. Great job yesterday on a report, a captain report. So make sure we're out there and continue to support Kirk and support the bill. Then we'll come back here ten minutes after the floor, and we'll finish up the captain's report, and then we'll look at the update on 06:48. There's a strike all amendment.