NYSUT President Melinda Person joined New York Governor Kathy Hochul at the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central this week for the announcement of a significant investment to increase the pipeline of students interested in the semiconductor industry and high-tech manufacturing.
Hochul announced the state would cofund a $4 million New York Advanced Technology Framework with Micron Technologies that will help schools expand Career and Technical Education programming across New York. Micron, a leading semiconductor manufacturer, will be locating their newest fabrication plant in nearby Clay and is expected to invest $100 billion in the region overall.
“Genuine learning looks different today than it did 10, or even five, years ago,” Person said at the announcement. “Kids don’t need to sit down and memorize more facts for a test. They need to know how to think critically about the unlimited information at their fingertips. They need to understand how to work and play and collaborate creatively with their peers. They need training with the complex systems and equipment that they will encounter every day in the real world.”
The framework, which is being developed by state educators and NYSUT members in partnership with Micron, will be piloted in 10 school districts and BOCES over three years beginning in fall 2024. The participating districts and BOCES are: Baldwinsville, Chittenango, East Syracuse-Minoa, Liverpool, New York City (Brooklyn STEAM Center and Thomas Edison High School), Niagara Falls, North Syracuse, Syracuse, OCM BOCES and Watertown.
The framework will allow districts to build out their own CTE curriculum, tailored to their individual needs and in direct collaboration with the employers who are ready to hire their students.
“It won’t look the same everywhere and that’s the beauty of these programs — they can be tailored to schools and students’ specific needs. Some of these districts will be expanding existing Career and Technical Education programs, some will be building brand new courses from the ground up,” Person explained.
Person continues to tout the importance of Career and Technical Education — not just because CTE helps students secure good jobs, but because this type of learning engages students, strengthening their attendance and boosting overall academic performance. Person said she has seen this time and time again during her visits to CTE programs across the state, including a visit that morning to a robotics class at nearby Chittenango High School.
“I talked to a young student there who told me that this robotics program created the environment where he wanted to come to school again,” Person said. “This type of hands-on learning reaches students in a way that other learning may not.”
Underscoring its continued commitment to education, Micron also broke ground at the new $74 million Syracuse Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) High School, located in the formerly vacant Central Tech School building in downtown Syracuse. The school is the marquee project of the Syracuse Surge, a citywide plan to stimulate economic growth that begins with targeted K-12 education and training.
“This is more than a school, this is a workforce development laboratory,” explained Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon.
Person and Hochul were joined at the announcement by AFT President Randi Weingarten and UFT President Michael Mulgrew, as well as elected officials and local leaders.
Thursday’s announcement punctuated a series of visits to programs across the state that emphasize hands-on, experiential learning, workplace immersion and the talent-tech pipeline. On Wednesday the three union presidents visited Brooklyn STEAM Center, which is located in Brooklyn Navy Yard and prepares students for real-world careers through daily exposure to more than 500 businesses, industry experts and professional-grade facilities.
“This unique career-connected collaboration between schools, teachers, unions, workforce development and industry links students’ passion and curiosity with purpose, paving pathways to good, middle-class jobs,” Weingarten said in Syracuse.
“This unique partnership is anchored in our shared vision of real solutions for kids and communities that prepare kids for college, career, civic participation and life. It not only helps students thrive, it plants the seeds of a manufacturing renaissance across New York and around the country.”
“I want to thank the team of educators who created this framework. By vetting content with industry experts, this team created a toolkit that local school districts can now use to create their own curriculum. This is how we scale up and expand Career and Technical Education,” said Mulgrew.
Both the Advanced Technology Framework and the Syracuse STEAM school are part of Micron’s $100-billion investment strategy in the region, which was announced in October 2022 and hinges on the company’s decision to construct the largest semiconductor fabrication facility in the U.S. — right in Syracuse’s back yard. The ‘megafab’ is expected to create 50,000 new jobs in the region.