The Carl D. Perkins Federal Grant consists of federally appropriated funds to provide support to Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs at the secondary (high school) and post-secondary (two-year schools) level. CTE programs at the secondary level include Agriculture, Business, Family Consumer Science, and Trades & Industry. In addition, Work-Based Learning programs (both special education and non-special education) at the high school level.
Minnesota is the only state in the U.S. using a consortia model. The Minnesota consortia model breaks the state up into 26 regions, with each region consisting of secondary schools and at least one post-secondary institution. GCED is part of the Southeast Consortium, which consists of the high schools in Goodhue, Wabasha, Winona, Fillmore, Houston Counties, along with parts of Olmsted County. The two-year institution partner is Minnesota College Southeast (campuses in Red Wing and Winona). Each consortium receives a federal and state appropriated dollar allotment for the secondary schools and post-secondary school(s).
GCED is the fiscal host for the Southeast Consortium secondary grant dollars and also provides the secondary grant coordinator. Some numbers to consider:
6 = the number of CTE career fields,
16 = the number of CTE career clusters,
79 = the number of CTE career pathways,
5,745 students = the number of students in the Southeast Perkins Consortium who took at least one CTE class in 2019-2020, and
$202,086.74 = the number of federal Perkins dollars appropriated to the Southeast Perkins Consortium high schools.