< PreviousCenter in Marble Falls houses the Texas Tech University Higher Education Teaching Site at Highland Lakes. Another part of the TTU presence in Hill Country is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). Highland Lakes area career pathways organization Workforce Network Inc. is moving forward with $. million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to develop job training programs in the counties of Burnet, Llano and Blanco in skilled trades, health care and fi nance/IT. Rowlett Economic Development Corporation ( rowlettonthemove.com ): Known as the Eastern Gateway to the DFW Metroplex, fast-growing Rowlett is within easy commuting distance of a number of colleges and universities, but also boasts strong resources within its Garland and Rockwall Independent School Districts (ISDs). e Dr. Gene Burton College & Career Academy, built after passage of a bond in , hosts career and technical programs for high school students and college credit off erings with Collin College and a Texas Tech regional learning site. Garland ISD, one of the largest school districts in Texas with more than , students, is home to the Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center, with over courses. e district also has specialized magnet programs, “a College for All initiative with a minimum of college credits, associate’s degrees and industry business partners at its high school campuses.” City of Texarkana (txkusa.org) and TexAmericas Center (texamericascenter.com/): e only city in the nation home to two university systems, the bi-state Texarkana metro area at the Texas-Arkansas state line boasts the presence of a Texas A&M campus and a University of Arkansas campus. e region is as good a place as any to be introduced to the RELLIS Academic Alliance, a University System Center that allows multiple Texas A&M System institutions and agencies — in all, including Texas A&M University-Texarkana as well as the Blinn College District — to off er selective degree and certifi cate programs in one location. e RELLIS Campus is located in Bryan, Texas, on a , acre property. e partnership in Texoma will help bolster the economy with skilled workers in high demand occupations for years to come.” — Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Bryan Daniel , December 2023, on awarding a $150,000 High Demand Job Training grant to Workforce Solutions Texoma to prepare workers in the Sherman-Denison region’s booming semiconductor sector ward with $. million in American Rescue Plan e partnership in Texoma will help forward with $. million in American Rescue Plan INTELLIGENCE REPORT TEXAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONNECTION WORKFORCE 2024 49 I f you are not using affordable housing as a metric when evaluating locations for your next corporate facility expansion project, you may want to add it to your list of factors. Why? The answer is simple. The median cost of a home has not been this out of reach for the average American worker since the 1990s. With home mortgage interest rates at nearly a 25-year high, the U.S. has entered a phase called the “lock-in effect.” Homeowners sitting on cheap loans don’t want to sell, and homebuyers simply cannot afford to close the deal. Combine that with a shortage of new homes, and we have a critical undersupply of workforce housing across the country. According to a study by The Cato Institute, 87% of Americans worry about the cost of housing, and 55% of homeowners say they would not be able to afford to buy their own home today based upon current market prices and interest rates. The National Association of Realtors says that decades of underinvestment into new housing stock is responsible for a nationwide shortage of some 5.5 million homes. On top of that, fewer homeowners are now willing to sell. From February 2020 to February 2022, the number of active listings in the U.S. declined by over 60%. As a result, the average home price in the U.S. today is 33% more than it was pre-COVID. Closing the Workforce Housing Gap The markets where it’s happening and why it’s important. by RON STARNER AFFORDABLE HOUSING The Partnership for Housing Affordability, led by Executive Director Jovan Burton, works to provide affordable housing solutions for working families in the Greater Richmond region of Virginia. Photo courtesy of PHA50 WORKFORCE 2024 Meanwhile, interest rates keep rising. As of November 1, 2023, the federal funds effective rate was 5.33% — the highest it’s reached since before the Great Recession of 2008 to 2010. For these reasons and others, site selectors are considering affordable housing when scouting locations for new plants that require the hiring of many new workers. “It is absolutely an issue that we consider in our projects,” says Tess Fay, principal and vice president of location intelligence for Global Location Strategies in Greenville, South Carolina. “In the early project phases, we evaluate data points including median home price, home-to-price income ratio, housing vacancy and rental vacancy,” Fay adds. “When we get to site visits, we will often request to drive through neighborhoods where workers may live. We also often discuss housing challenges in our interviews with local business leaders.” Midwest Leads in Affordability Using data from the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, Fay’s firm has compiled a ranking of the most affordable housing markets for workers in the U.S. Danville and Decatur, Illinois, emerge as the two most affordable places in the country, according to these data, followed by Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Kokomo, Indiana; and Weirton-Steubenville, West Virginia-Ohio. Global Location Strategies also put together a heat map showing the range of housing affordability across the country. The most affordable housing markets for workers are concentrated mostly in the Midwest and the Central Plains states. While the East Coast has some pockets of affordability, housing along both coasts of the U.S. is largely unattainable for the average working family. One community leader working to fix that is Jovan Burton, executive director of the Partnership for Housing Affordability (PHARVA) in Richmond, Virginia. “We are the backbone organization in Greater Richmond WORKFORCE 2024 51 for this issue,” he says. “Most local governments around here do not have housing staff , so it is going to take a collaborative eff ort to make a meaningful dent. is issue is so large that it is not just confi ned to pockets. It is a regional issue.” e workforce housing gap in Greater Richmond is the equivalent of , rental units. “ at is our shortage,” says Burton. “We are a region that is very popular right now. We have a lower cost of living, and that helps attract a lot of new jobs and new people to this area. As people move here from Northern Virginia and other more expensive areas, it just drives up housing demand and prices here. e median rent is now around $, a month in Greater Richmond.” e need for more aff ordable housing is acute, notes Burton, because “four of the fi ve most common job occupations in our region cannot aff ord the median rent. In reality, the majority of our workforce cannot aff ord the median rent here. ese are hundreds of thousands of individuals. ese are child-care workers, people in the restaurant and service industry, admin workers, government workers and call center workers too.” One roadblock is zoning. Burton says that less than % of all land areas in the region allow for multi-family development. “Zoning impacts where things can and cannot be built. Land acquisition costs and construction costs have all gone up signifi cantly over the last three years,” he says, “but help is on the way.” ‘Where Will Workers Live?’ e City of Richmond just announced a $ million fund for aff ordable housing, with $ million coming from the city and the other $ million coming from a national housing organization known as Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Jane Ferrara, executive director of LISC Virginia, said, “We look forward to working with the city to implement a strategy driven by a vision for a more aff ordable and inclusive city where people not only want to live, but can aff ord to live and thrive.” Burton says he welcomes the new fund because “it is diffi cult for the workforce to become fi rst-time homebuyers. When a jobs project is announced, where will all the workers live? We have a one- month supply of homes on the market at any given time. Most of the available homes are not aff ordable to the average worker, even when they qualify for downpayment assistance.” Empower.com conducted its own worker housing analysis and found that Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfi eld, Illinois; and Wichita, Kansas, were the three most aff ordable places in America for working adults. Empower used criteria like cost of living, taxes, healthcare, and home prices. Most of the available homes are not aff ordable to the average worker, even when they qualify for downpayment assistance.” — Jovan Burton , Executive Director, Partnership for Housing Aff ordability, Richmond, Virginia Most of the available homes are not aff ordable to the average worker, even when they qualify The Better Housing Coalition offi cially opens new aff ordable housing in Greater Richmond, Virginia. Photo courtesy of BHC MOST AFFORDABLE CITIES FOR HOMEBUYERS RANK CITY SCORE T1 Montgomery, AL 71.4 T1 Flint, MI 71.4 3 Toledo, OH 71.0 4 Detroit, MI 70.9 5 Akron, OH 70.3 6 Warren, MI 70.2 7 Pittsburgh, PA 70.1 8 Yuma, AZ 69.5 T9 Springfi eld, IL 69.1 T9 Palm Bay, FL 69.1 Source: WalletHub, May 2023How Chip Makers Are Bringing Parents Back into the Workforce W ith the cost of child care rising rapidly, the more than 14 million working parents in America with children under the age of three are faced with quite the conundrum: Shell out thousands of dollars a year on child care or leave the workforce to look after their children. Yet many can’t afford either option. A report released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in June 2023 found that the average cost of child care for one kid in 2021 was $10,600 a year, one-tenth of a married couple’s median income or more than one-third of a single parent’s income. It also revealed that approximately 13% of children below by LINDSAY LOPP CHILD CARE 52 WORKFORCE 2024 Photo: Getty Images WORKFORCE 2024 53 the age of five live in families where someone had to quit, change or refuse a job because of problems with child care. As the when the nation is already experiencing labor shortages, it cannot afford to drive more parents out of the workforce due to a lack of affordable child care options. And with the emergence of the semiconductor industry expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade, ensuring the availability of this resource will be essential to its success. Therefore the Department of Commerce has required that companies looking to access more than $150 million from the CHIPS and Science Act submit a proposal outlining how they plan to provide affordable child care for their workers. This includes facility employees and those hired for construction. To receive funding, a company’s plan must demonstrate an understanding of the child care resources available in the project’s location. In many regions there aren’t enough child care workers, facilities or room for additional students. Availability is also limited for families who have infants and toddlers, have low incomes, work nontraditional hours or live in rural areas. Affordability is another factor that must be considered. ReadyNation reports that the average cost of center- based child care for infants is more than in-state public college tuition in 34 states and the District of Columbia. In some areas, care for a single child can cost as much as 14-18% of a construction worker’s gross wages, according to the Department of Commerce. “We’re not doing this for the sake of putting points on the board for child care policy, but we are acknowledging that when you look at the labor market right now, one of the largest factors keeping people out of the labor market is caregiving responsibilities,” Caitlin Legacki, a senior adviser at the Commerce Department, told Axios in February 2023. Micron’s New Fabs Will Feature Child Care In alignment with this contingency, Micron Technology, Inc., one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and an applicant for CHIPS funding, has decided to build child care facilities at two of its current projects. In Boise, Idaho, the company is constructing a “world class” childcare center directly across from its corporate headquarters and future memory manufacturing fab, a $15 billion investment that is expected to create 2,000 jobs. Once completed, the new child care facility will offer STEM-based programming and will be operated by the Treasure Valley Family YMCA. To further address the needs of its Idaho employees and construction workforce, Micron is partnering with IdahoSTARS and other childcare referral tools to identify shared resources that support affordable and high-quality childcare. “We recognize that there are systemic barriers to workforce entry and re-entry, including childcare services, which is why we are focused on providing childcare options that support and expand the workforce, and benefits the broader community.” said Micron Senior Vice President, Chief People Officer and President of the Micron Foundation April Arnzen in May. Micron aims to create similar resources for the 9,000 employees it expects to hire once its semiconductor manufacturing campus in Clay, New York is also completed. As part of the agreement between Micron and New York State, the $100 billion project will include an onsite daycare center. Since the company announced this multi-billion-dollar project, it has made several investments in the region’s childcare and education resources, including a pledge of $500,000 to the YMCA of Central New York to expand access to affordable and quality child care services for underserved communities. 54 WORKFORCE 2024 One State’s Approach to Incentivizing Accessible Care Over the last four years, New York State has invested more than $7 billion in affordable child care, the state’s child care workforce and support for working families. Through strategic incentives such as the Child Care Creation and Expansion Tax Credit, New York officials strive to increase the number of companies in the state that provide child care for their employees. Launched in December, this program offers businesses tax credits for eligible businesses that that create or expand affordable and accessible infant and toddler child care seats for their employees directly or through a third- party. $50 million has been set aside for this incentive and will be dispersed evenly over a two-year period. This state has also allocated another $50 million to Child Care Capital Program (CCCP), which will award grants ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million to eligible child care providers to expand existing child care centers or build new ones. Projects must be shovel-ready and demonstrate the ability to be licensed and fully operational within six months of completing construction and worth at least $500,000. Both initiatives will be over een by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and administered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY). “We have heard our hardworking families loud and clear, and are answering their call to increase high- quality options for child care and the much-needed resources to obtain it,” said OCFS Acting Commissioner and Child Care Availability Task Force Co-Chair Suzanne Miles-Gustave. “OCFS continues to work alongside the governor and the legislature to explore additional creative strategies to meet the growing demand for these services, knowing they are essential to the well- being of our children and families, and the growth of New York’s economy.” Micron’s $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing campus in Clay, New York will feature an onsite child care facility. Rendering courtesy of MicronHigh school students are once again preparing for the workforce before graduation. A shift in education may be to be blame for America’s labor crisis. Prior to the turn of the century, skills-training courses were prominent in American public schools. Wood shop, metal shop and autobody classes were a part of the standard high school curriculum. The availability of these courses slowly began to slip away following the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. Due to this legislation, school funding became reliant on meeting federal standards through mandated testing. Thus, K-12 education was restructured to center around preparing for annual math and reading assessments. With Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses not essential for this new curriculum, support for them dwindled and often, once budget cuts came rolling in, ceased entirely. According to data from the National Center of Education Statistics, from 1990 to 2009, the average number of CTE credits earned by U.S. public high school graduates declined from 4.2% to 3.6%, while the average number of credits earned in subjects such as Math, English, Social Studies and Science increased. As the nation now faces thousands of job openings in the industries these classes once by LINDSAY LOPP HIGH SCHOOL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT WORKFORCE 2024 55 Shop Class is Back Through the Terrell Independent School District’s (TISD) 11 CTE pathways, middle and high school students gain hands-on experience, college credits and certifications in high demand and emerging industries before graduation. Photo courtesy of Terrell Independent School District56 WORKFORCE 2024 prepared workers for, reintegrating and revamping CTE courses has risen to the top of the U.S. Department of Education’s agenda. Launched at the end of , Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success is a new initiative to increase and expand K- skills-based learning and training pathways across U.S. public schools. Backed by $ billion, this program is working to ensure that current and future generations are developing the skills necessary to fi ll jobs in manufacturing, automotive, cybersecurity and emerging positions such as those created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CHIPS and Science Act. President Biden’s proposed FY budget features various projects to bolster this initiative, including $ million in CTE grants and $ million for CTE national programs, $ million of which will be used to support competitive grants for the Career-Connected High School Grant Program. Kicked off in August , this program provides funding to a consortia of local K- educational agencies, higher ed institutions and employers to pilot evidence-based strategies that increase the integration and alignment of the last two years of high school and the fi rst two years of postsecondary education. ese grants have the ability to support a variety of activities to address regional needs, including dual enrollment classes, covering the costs of tuition, books, supplies and other related expenses for low-income students, tutoring and additional academic supports, transportation for students to work-based learning sites, the development of new CTE programs in high-growth fi elds, teacher training and new equipment for these programs. CTE Strengthens Communities Located around miles east of Dallas, Texas, the city of Terrell knows the benefi t of having a robust CTE program within its community. e Terrell Independent School District (TISD) boasts pathways that allow students to gain hands-on experience, college credits and certifi cations in high-demand and emerging industries before graduation. Animal Science, A/V Digital Communications, Business Management and Marketing, Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, Welding, Automotive, Computer Science, Health Science and Legal Studies, are among the pathways currently off ered. “Several of those programs can actually start in the eighth grade,” says TISD’s Director of Assessment and Accountability Luke Hurst. “Over the last two years, we graduated one of every fi ve of our seniors with an industry-based certifi cation that they are able to take directly into the workplace. ere are education pathways where there are already longstanding job openings in the community that are students are able to fi ll rather quickly.” Madix Inc., FXI, Walmart Distribution and Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope are among the various businesses in the region benefi ting from graduates of TISD’s CTE pathways program. Some of these employers also have played a role in bolstering these programs. In addition to hiring graduates, Nucor Building Systems donates metal to the welding program, which, like many of the pathways, also includes dual-enrollment courses at nearby Trinity Valley Community College. For the automotive pathway, the school district Over the last two years, we graduated one of every fi ve of our seniors with an industry-based certifi cation that they are able to take directly into the workplace.” — Luke Hurst , Director of Assessment and Accountability, Terrell Independent School District. Over the last two years, we graduated Over the last two years, we graduated WORKFORCE 2024 57 has partnered with the local Platinum Chevrolet dealership. With the help of that company’s technician, students are learning the tricks of the trade and completing industry-based certifications in suspension and steering. “Typically, a young man, or woman for that matter, would start out on what I call a lube rack, doing basic oil changes, rotating tires, looking at filters and things like that. And if they want to stick with it, we encourage them to,” says Justin Rudd, general manager at the Platinum Chevrolet dealership in Terrell. “You start out on the lube rack, and we’ll work you into being a helper in the shop for one of the main technicians and then you slowly start going out on your own in the automotive world fixing cars. And that process does take years, but it starts with a young person in school.” Building upon this success, the TISD has big plans to expand its repertoire of pathways in the coming years. “We have applied for a grant that will allow us to open up an aviation pathway. We have the airport here in Terrell, and then, of course, the metroplex is a hub for aviation. So, it will allow students to get their certification in drone piloting and give them some exposure to aviation,” says Dr. Georgeanne Warnock, the superintendent of the TISD. “Down the road, as part of our law program, we are looking to expand that to law and criminal justice. We have a police force here in the district, and they are really excited that they’re going to be able to help teach some of the criminal justice classes and connect with students in a different way in the classroom. Then we’re looking to add a culinary arts program. Those are just some of the things that we have happening.” TISD students participating in the Health Science pathway. Photo courtesy of Terrell Independent School DistrictNext >