New investments in CareerTech aim to provide relief for booming waitlist, agency hopes for more

StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma CareerTech oversees 29 technology centers across 60 campuses statewide. It takes about 500,000 yearly enrollments and offers courses to students in about 400 school districts and adults.

And about 7,500 students are sitting on a waitlist to get in.

To tackle the waitlist, the Oklahoma Legislature allocated $26.7 million in new one-time funds for the agency this year. The money was recently disbursed to schools and is now being used across the state for facility upgrades, expanded programming and more.

CareerTech Director Brent Haken is grateful for the boost, but he cautions against considering it a windfall that would fully eliminate the waitlist. He plans to return to the legislature next year with the same pitch — that increasing base funding is the only way to fully reach the thousands of Oklahomans hoping for a spot in a CareerTech program.

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