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Thousands of unemployed Missourians sign up for free online classes

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In July, the state partnered with a company called Coursera to begin offering free online courses to Missourians unemployed as a result of COVID-19. The state Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development tells Missourinet about 2,300 individuals have registered and about 471 people have completed at least one course so far.

Thousands of unemployed Missourians sign up for free online classes

Through the partnership, the students can choose from more than 3,800 free classes in business, technology, and data science. They can also earn professional certificates from leading companies like IBM and Google that are designed to prepare people for entry-level careers like IT.

“I truly believe education changes lives,” said Zora Mulligan, commissioner of higher education. “Coursera provides another avenue for Missourians to learn new, marketable skills and, even during this period of economic uncertainty, advance their careers.”

Anyone who was registered by the October 31 deadline has until the end of this year to complete courses for free.

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Missouri education official calls substitute teacher shortage a crisis

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Missouri schools continue to struggle with having enough teachers available to educate students in traditional classrooms this year. The Show-Me State has had a chronic problem with teacher shortages, but COVID-19 has made that can of worms open even more.

Missouri education official calls substitute teacher shortage a crisis

Many of the state’s 70,000 pre-k through 12 teachers are going above and beyond this year to reach their students in the classroom and at home. Some schools have been forced to move to online learning if they lack enough educators. Teachers are giving up their planning time to pitch in and help in other parts of their school. Students are sometimes getting shuffled into other classrooms because their teacher is absent.

According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) website, about 81,000 students are currently getting in-seat instruction. About 139,000 are learning online only. Another 658,000 are doing a combination of the two. None of Missouri’s roughly 551 school districts and charter schools are closed due to COVID-19.

In September, DESE launched an online training program that can fast track candidates to become K-12 substitute teachers. The temporary effort is meant to help fill the gaps in teacher shortages during the pandemic.

More than 2,700 Missourians have enrolled in the program so far and about 700 are currently subbing. Dr. Paul Katnik is the assistant commissioner of the Office of Educator Quality at DESE. During a state Board of Education meeting today, Katnik says people in every region of the state have signed up.

“We started the entire program on September 2. We were issuing our first certificate on September 9,” he says. “People can get this done in a week if they’ve got everything turned in and they get their training done right away. I can tell you there’s other people that haven’t moved along quite that quickly.”

Despite the volume of participation, the need for more subs still exists. Just ask Missouri Board of Education member Mary Schrag of southern Missouri’s West Plains.

“I just think we’re just really struggling still to get subs in these very small towns where we have really limited numbers of individuals who would probably be able to sub and be successful,” she says. “I think in the more urban areas, they are more populous. There’s just more people to tap into in the first place.”

Substitute teacher certifications have also taken a plunge since March. The range has been anywhere from 16% to 72% compared to last year. Certifications began to turn the corner a bit last month but Katnik says the substitute teacher shortage is still very real.

“It was a problem before the pandemic. It’s certainly a crisis now,” he says.

Katnik says the rate at which schools are not filling substitute teacher jobs has, in turn, grown during the pandemic.

“The typical fill rates for substitutes are upwards of 80% in a normal year. Meaning if I need ten subs, I usually get eight out of the ten,” says Katnik. “But we’re hearing fill rates now being 50% and less, which means I can’t even fill half.”

The cost for the full set of substitute training courses required to meet certification is $175. The online program is available on the Missouri Department Elementary and Secondary Education’s website.

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Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

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The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation is deploying $6 million in federal funding to create 5,300 new tech industry apprenticeships. During a virtual event Monday, President Dan Mehan calls the investment a game changer.

Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

“There is an apprenticeship revolution going on in Missouri,” he says. “Over the last two years, our state ranks second in the number of completed apprenticeships – second only behind California.”

More than 10,000 Missourians have gone through an apprenticeship program that gives them real-world and traditional learning through a paid work experience. The effort is meant to give participants a feel for whether they would like to make a living in the profession.

According to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about 94% of apprentices are retained by their employers after they complete their apprenticeships and the average annual salary is not too shabby – about $70,000. The Chamber says the pay leads to a $300,000 lifetime earning advantage over non-apprentices.

Mehan says the state is “poised for strong growth” in apprenticeships thanks to a number of developments this year.

Mehan says House Bill 2046, passed this year by the Missouri Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, will boost the state’s apprenticeship efforts. The plan, sponsored by Rep. Derek Grier, R-Chesterfield, gives students industry credentials after they finish their program.

“This progress could not have come at a better time,” says Mehan. “We all know our state faces many challenges as we continue to confront COVID-19 and seek to grow our economy out of it. One of our biggest challenges will be training workers who find themselves unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic. Apprenticeships will be a very important tool as we work to help get these workers back on the job and likewise ensure that Missouri employers have the talent they need to grow and power our economy.”

Another development Mehan points to is Missouri Apprentice Connect – the first in the nation apprenticeship matching program. The free service can be found by going to MoApprenticeConnect.com

Dr. Mardy Leathers, director of the Missouri Office of Workforce Development, says there is a wide variety of businesses contributing to the state’s apprenticeship success.

“In Missouri, it would be easy if I could rattle off the names of a couple employers. But the reality is, there are 493 employers who have apprenticeship programs in the state. So, we have a lot of employers who engage,” says Leathers. “It’s actually a great thing that I can’t rattle those names off because we have so many.”

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, helped to secure the federal grant. Blunt chairs a subcommittee that funds U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and others.

“Nobody has taken better advantage of this than Missouri has,” says Blunt. “We’ve got a new Office of Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning that has been set up in the Department of Higher Education. I think what these apprenticeship programs do and what our state, what you’ve done and what Governor Parson has done and others have done, is realize we have to look at the workplace a little differently.”

Cerner Corporation – a global healthcare technology company in Kansas City – was the lead partner in bringing the federal grant to Missouri.

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All aboard! Missouri astronaut gears up for space

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The countdown is approaching for NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins of southern Missouri’s Richland. In T minus five days, Hopkins and three others are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station.

Hopkins is leading the four-person crew on a mission that will make space their home for about the next six months. They arrived Sunday to the Kennedy Space Center.

PHOTO DATE: 12-29-16
LOCATION: Bldg. 8, Room 183 – Photo Studio
SUBJECT: Official astronaut portrait of Mike Hopkins in an EMU suit.
PHOTOGRAPHER: BILL STAFFORD

“It’s really been an incredible effort by an incredible group of people. For the crew – we’re ready,” said Hopkins.

He will be joined by NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Victor Glover, as well as Soichi Noguchi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The crew is blasting off in the same vehicle that launched into space over the summer with St. Louis County native Bob Behnken on board.

The space mission will mark the second one for Hopkins. He has logged 166 days in space and conducted two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes.

“I’m excited to float again. There’s nothing like that,” he told Missourinet during an interview in September. “It’s an experience that is hard to describe and that’s actually one of my goals when I go up this time is to figure out how to describe – how to put it into words to people down on Earth.”

Hopkins has also served his country in the U.S. Air Force and is currently a colonel in the newly-launched U.S. Space Force – a space warfare branch of America’s military.

Saturday’s liftoff is scheduled for 6:49 p.m. CST at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Previous story:

(AUDIO) Missouri native prepares to blast off to space
https://www.missourinet.com/2020/09/30/audio-missouri-native-prepares-to-blast-off-to-space/

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Blunt says final election results unlikely to change enough to make a difference

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National media reports Democrat Joe Biden has captured more than the required 270 electoral votes to become the next president, but President Donald Trump is not going down without a fight. Trump, a Republican, Trump has claimed widespread election fraud, a “mail-in ballot hoax”, and his campaign is suing. On Saturday, Trump also said on Twitter that he won the election “by a lot”.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri

During Sunday’s ABC television news program “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said the election should be finished the way it deserves to be finished. Then, he went a step further than many of his Republican colleagues have gone.

“Almost every state, within seven to ten days of the election, goes through that entire canvas. There are always some changes,” he said. “It seems unlikely that any changes could be big enough to make a difference, but this is a close election. We need to acknowledge that.”

Blunt, a Republican and former Missouri Secretary of State, said both Biden and Trump will benefit from the vote counting process getting entirely finished.

“It’s going to be much easier to work toward the kind of transition we want, look at the inauguration which I’m going to have the honor of chairing again this time, and bringing the country together if everybody feels like we went through a process and everybody was heard – every legal vote was counted, every illegal vote was challenged and not counted,” said Blunt.

He went on to say Trump’s lawyers should present their case and let the facts speak for themselves.

Despite COVID-19 continuing to take a toll on the country, Blunt said a “normal” inauguration is planned. He said scaling back the ceremony is easier than scaling it up.

“I think we’re going to project to the world that democracy works, that this country where, with the president’s efforts and other efforts, incredible energy in this election produced a result and that this is a great time for us to show how a true democracy works. And hopefully we’ll – I’m confident we’re going to see that,” said Blunt. “I expect to see both Vice President Biden and President Trump on the stage on Inaugural Day and that will be a powerful message no matter which one of them is sworn in that day.”

The six-person Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is made up of three senators and three house members. The theme for the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies is “Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union”.

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Missouri’s Blunt says all legal votes should be counted

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President Donald Trump’s campaign is filing lawsuits to challenge the vote counting process in Tuesday’s general election. Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt says candidates have the right to use all of the tools available to them to ensure the votes are accurately counted.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri

“But every ballot cast, in accordance with state law, needs to be counted. The election is not over until it is counted,” Blunt tells KMBC-TV in Kansas City. “America believes in democracy, and we know how to vote, and we know how to count the ballots.”

He praises Trump’s campaign for energizing so many voters; that turnout records are being set in many places. He says those votes, on both sides, will be counted.

Blunt, a top Republican in his chamber, says the process should be completely transparent so the American people are confident in the results.

On Twitter, the president said “Stop the count” and “Stop the fraud.” It was flagged by Twitter for possibly being misleading.

A Capitol Hill press pool reporter quoted Blunt pushing back.

“You can’t stop the count in one state and decide you want the count to continue in another state. That might be how you’d like to see the system work but that’s not how the system works,” said Blunt.

Blunt served as Missouri Secretary of State from 1985-1993.

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Missouri town with French colonial history becomes National Historical Park

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After about two decades in the making, St. Genevieve in southeast Missouri has officially become the state’s first ever National Historical Park.

The town – dating back to the early 1700s – was the first organized European settlement west of the Mississippi River and is the only surviving French Colonial village in America. It is known for its architecture that features unique vertical log designs.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) and U.S. Representative Jason Smith (Mo.) at a ceremonial signing of the cooperative agreements in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., on August 31st, 2018. This marked the final statutory step needed to establish Ste. Genevieve as a national park.

Some of the historic properties include the Felix Valle House, the Shaw House, the Green Tree Tavern, the Creole House, the Bequette-Ribault House, the Zarinelli property, the Delassus-Kern House and the Zerwig property.

During a ceremony there this week to celebrate the town’s designation, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said St. Genevieve is taking its rightful place among the nation’s most historically and culturally significant destinations.

“This is a story that is an important part of who we are. It’s an important of our state. It’s an important part of the country,” said Blunt. “These buildings each have their own stories to tell. Essentially the houses are houses that you could find the core of those houses anywhere in Normandy if you just looked hard enough.”

Blunt and Congressman Jason Smith, R-Missouri, lead efforts in Washington to make the town of about 4,500 a National Historical Park. In 2018, Congress and President Donald Trump approved the designation after a National Park Service study declared dozens of the area properties as historically significant. The action authorized the National Park Service to acquire about 13 acres of land.

“This has such potential to be one of the great historic walking parks in America,” said Blunt. “The story, in so many ways, can tell itself with just a little bit of help. And that little bit of help is what happens when the community, the state, the federal government come together.”

St. Genevieve welcomes thousands of tourists each year who want to see for themselves the rich history the town has to offer. During this week’s ceremony, Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Carol Comer was hopeful the partnership would give the community a boost.

“This new historical park is expected to have a major impact on local and state tourism as people from all over the country and the world learn about the significance of this area,” said Comer.

Ste. Genevieve’s government and the National Park System will together manage the park, the 422nd park to join the system.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

White House report: 91% of Missouri counties have moderate to high levels of COVID-19 transmission

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The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force reports says Missouri has the tenth highest rate of positive COVID-19 cases in the country. The report, dated November 1, says 91% of all Missouri counties have moderate to high levels of community transmission, with 76% having high levels.

White House report: 91% of Missouri counties have moderate to high levels of COVID-19 transmission

On Wednesday, Missouri reported 2,600 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s overall case count to more than 193,000. The state also reported another 24 people dying from the virus – boosting the death toll to more than 3,000.

The report’s recommendations for Missouri include weekly testing of all college students, limiting restaurant indoor capacity to less than 50% and restricting hours until cases decline. Other suggestions are always wear a mask in public places, do not gather without a mask with individuals living outside your household and stop gatherings beyond your immediate household until cases decline significantly.

Gov. Mike Parson is leaving it up to local leaders to decide whether to require masks in public.

To view the report, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, click here.

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