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14 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2025 Does participation in this program present any scheduling challenges for students? e beauty is that these courses are being taught by single subject credentialed teachers. Your engineering class also counts as a math or science requirement. e personal finance class counts as a math requirement. is fits into a student's normal class schedule and allows students to see the "why" of their learn- ing throughout the course of their normal day. suggested areas of instruction. Additionally, each school site must have a CTSO—a club pro- gram outside the normal curriculum that sup- ports career development, like FBLA or Dis- tributive Education Clubs of America (DECA). A school can even create its own club as long as it is a co-curricular organization where students gather and work on real-life problem-solving outside the classroom. Is there enough funding available and have you seen changes in recent years? Has the CHIPS Act's focus on U.S. manufacturing benefited these types of programs? Yes and no. Funding is always a challenge for educational programs like this. I have a doc- ument that breaks down our major potential funding sources, totaling $1.5–$2 billion annu- ally just for California. But think of how large the state of California is and how many stu- dents are in grades 7 to 12. ere is additional funding available through partnerships and proposal requests. I am not familiar with CHIPS Act, so I do not know if it has helped drive more funding to this pro- gram, but the Fremont Unified School District is a recipient of Perkins supplemental funding. We hope to be able to access even more fund- ing streams in the future to expand pathways in health sciences, business, and arts, media and entertainment, which are all growing sectors in Silicon Valley. What stands out to you most about the district's PLTW program? I am a lifelong learner. I'm not against old-fash- ioned education, but what if every class had a connection to higher education or industry? In a perfect world, one of your English classes would be business writing, public speaking, or communications. Your government and econ classes could become international business and business law, and you could carry that with you and see the relevance and the applicabil- ity of what you're learning in the real world. It would influence what you pursue next. " e beauty is that these courses are being taught by single subject credentialed teachers. " How many students participate in the program year over year? We have 2,000 students, which is roughly 15% of our secondary (7-12) student population in Fremont, not including Regional Occupational Program (ROP) students. is number is for FUSD CTE internal programs alone. Let's talk about funding. What are the requirements for grant qualification? To be grant eligible, there must be a career "pathway," which consists of two or more artic- ulated courses including a level one and level two course (360 hours of instruction). Teach- ers must be properly credentialed. Any district can offer a course called computer science and it can be taught by a math or science teacher. But even though computer science counts as a math or science requirement, the teacher must also have the CTE credential for it to be con- sidered a pathway course. Key factors added this year for supplemen- tal funding are that the pathway connects and aligns with the governor's Vision 2030, and includes instruction and work-based learning in careers that are on the rise. Green and sustain- able careers like SMART Manufacturing, Envi- ronmental Sustainability, and others are highly