State Updates
State Legislation on the Move
As the State Legislature continues to move through the first year of their two-year session, several workforce and education related bills supported by the MWA are moving through the legislative process.
H2171, An Act to make data on workforce development outcomes public and accessible, was reported favorably from the House Labor & Workforce Development Committee and now heads to the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is – generally the last stop a bill makes before seeing a formal vote.
H.2171 would require timely access to Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) wage data to help the workforce system better understand employment outcomes of the individuals served by the publicly funded workforce development system. It would utilize existing data reporting mechanisms between DUA and the Department of Career Services, and importantly, would not place any additional reporting requirements on employers. The legislation would also create a task force to address the state’s workforce data infrastructure.
In addition to MWA’s data bill, H.2080 & S.1326, An Act to promote economic mobility through ESOL has advanced out of the Labor & Workforce Committee in both branches to their respective Ways & Means Committee.
This legislation would create an ESOL Economic Mobility Coordinator position in the Executive Office of Labor & Workforce Development charged with developing a statewide strategy for ESOL focused on getting participants into the workforce. The legislation also calls for more significant investment into workforce development focused ESOL.
On the education side, H.630, An Act Establish an Education-to-Career Data Center was reported out favorably from the House Committee on education. Championed by the Friends of Longitudinal Data Systems coalition, the legislation would create a centralized data agency with the goal of tracking long-term longitudinal educational and workforce data to provide high-quality information to educators, researchers and workforce development professionals. The bill now sits in the House Committee on Ways & Means.
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