{"id":9694,"date":"2025-06-24T03:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9694\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T03:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:25:13","slug":"new-funding-will-cover-cte-certification-costs-for-philly-public-school-teachers-metro-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9694\/","title":{"rendered":"New funding will cover CTE certification costs for Philly public school teachers \u2013 Metro Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"CTE\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Students participate in the summer automotive program Monday, June 23, at Swenson Arts & Technology High School. <\/p>\n

JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n

Career and technical education teachers in Philadelphia\u2019s public schools will no longer have to pay out-of-pocket for their state-required certification courses, officials said Monday.\n<\/p>\n

The costs are a \u201creal impediment\u201d for CTE educators, said City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who successfully pushed for $500,000 to be incorporated into the recently passed municipal budget<\/a> for teacher credentialing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one of the only districts in the commonwealth who did not offer full tuition reimbursement for the CTE teachers or full payment for that certification,\u201d she said. \u201cWe wanted to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTE teachers in Pennsylvania<\/a>\u00a0must have four years of relevant industry experience or two years and a college degree. They usually receive emergency permits for their first academic year; then, they apply for a three-year intern certification while pursuing Level 1 credentials through classes.<\/p>\n

Only designated universities, including Temple and Penn State, offer CTE teacher certification classes, and the cost starts at about $2,250 per course, according to Gilmore Richardson\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\"CTECareer and technical education teacher Jessica Lawyer speaks during a news conference Monday, June 23, at Swenson Arts & Technology High School.JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an incredible incentive to not just lighten the burden for current teachers, but to entice more industry professionals to come from industry and make that transition into education,\u201d said Jessica Lawyer, a culinary arts teacher at Thomas A. Edison High School, who has worked in the public school system for nearly seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of everything is rising,\u201d added Lawyer, who is currently taking classes at Temple. \u201cTo have this funding is just going to be another booster, another motivator for me as a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilmore Richardson said the half a million dollars \u201cshould cover the majority of the need,\u201d though School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said his team is still finalizing the numbers.<\/p>\n

About 160 CTE teachers currently work in the city\u2019s public schools<\/a>, offering classes spanning more than 43 occupational areas to 5,000 students, according to the district. Young people can begin taking CTE classes in 10th grade.<\/p>\n

\"CTESchool District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. speaks about CTE programming Monday, June 23, at Swenson Arts & Technology High School. JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n

Gilmore Richardson and Watlington made Monday\u2019s announcement at Swenson Arts & Technology High School in the Far Northeast, where middle schoolers were participating in a weeklong CTE summer camp exploring the culinary and automotive fields, among other trades.<\/p>\n

The event also served as the district\u2019s summer programming kickoff. Summer Achievers, a mix of camp and school for students in first through eighth grade, was set to begin Tuesday. The free, full-day program is a partnership between the district and city.<\/p>\n

\"CTEStudents participate in the summer culinary program Monday, June 23, at Swenson Arts & Technology High School.JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n

Officials anticipate 25,000 children will take part in the district\u2019s various summer activities<\/a>, which also include orchestra, drumline and young entrepreneur programs for certain age groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about this whole notion about the \u2018summer slide\u2019 and kids lose some of what they learned during the school year, it\u2019s so important that we have free and highly engaging learning opportunities available for our young people during the summer months,\u201d Watlington said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun, it\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s not just a typical school year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students participate in the summer automotive program Monday, June 23, at Swenson Arts & Technology High School. JACK…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,10772,10773,1448,2830,1311,10774,10775,10776,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-9694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-career-and-technical-education","10":"tag-katherine-gilmore-richardson","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","15":"tag-swenson-arts-technology-high-school","16":"tag-tony-watlington","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}