Two Maryland Colleges Obtain Federal CDL Grants
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (fifth from left) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (sixth from left) current a ceremonial verify to Prince George’s County Group School. (Maryland.gov)
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Underscoring the suitability of army veterans to mitigate a nationwide truck driver scarcity, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore and others to announce a pair of federal grants totaling $371,050 to 2 neighborhood schools for business driver license coaching.
Ceremonial checks have been offered Oct. 11 for $173,640 to Prince George’s Group School and $197,410 for the Group School of Baltimore County after Buttigieg and others toured the CDL instruction facility at PGCC in Largo, Md., a suburb of Washington.
“This can be a nice day for us as a result of we consider in neighborhood schools. We consider in veterans and we consider within the significance of trucking for the nation, for our financial safety and for our future,” Buttigieg mentioned. “Our division estimates that a whole lot of hundreds of drivers are leaving this important career yearly, which has two implications. First, we will and should step up our efforts to help this career and two, we’ve to step up our efforts to name extra folks into it as a result of these are actually the employees who maintain our nation transferring.”
The grants will present no-cost coaching for college kids, particularly army veterans and their households, he added, noting that the funds are paying for a brand new era of significant jobs.
Moore mentioned, “We’re right here to rejoice the truth that what this funding goes to do in the present day, it’s going to offer us a possibility to ensure that folks can get a good-paying job, to have an opportunity to maintain their households and an opportunity to have the ability to fulfill their goals, and know that they’re developing in an establishment, in a state and in a rustic that helps that and makes it simpler and doesn’t make it tougher.”
Dr. Sherrie Johnson, PGCC vp of exterior affairs, communications and development, mentioned the funding will assist college students excited by careers within the transportation trade. She famous that 300 college students have enrolled since July 1, and greater than 500 college students obtained coaching throughout fiscal 2023 in PGCC’s transportation, distribution and logistics departments.
We’re funding coaching for veterans and people from underserved communities to begin new, good-paying careers in trucking. Proud to affix @GovWesMoore and @PatrickMurphyPA at Prince George’s Group School to focus on this good work in the present day. pic.twitter.com/rFHz1xjhDm
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) October 11, 2023
One latest graduate on the rostrum for the ceremony was 70-year-old James Brackin, a retired postal employee and U.S. Military veteran who obtained monetary assist to earn a Class A CDL to finish a private undertaking to construct inexpensive properties in his Louisiana hometown.
“Whereas serving within the army and serving as a civilian truck driver are totally different, they’re not that totally different within the particular sense that lives rely on folks safely doing that job each single day,” Buttigieg mentioned, recalling his army service. “The varieties of people that have worn our nation’s uniform are among the many varieties of individuals we have to be calling into this vitally vital work [and] amongst a complete vary of People who may gain advantage from the good profession alternatives that trucking presents and meet an important nationwide want.”
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The federal funds got here from DOT’s Industrial Motor Car Operator Security Coaching Program, which gives monetary assets for CDL coaching that provides precedence to veterans, together with Nationwide Guard members, reservists and army members of the family. Underneath the bipartisan infrastructure regulation, this system was allotted $3.2 million for fiscal 2023. The Federal Motor Provider Security Administration said it anticipated to award 15 grants, and the grant has a $200,000 cap for a person award. Eligible candidates embrace public and state larger instructional establishments, cities/townships/counties, small companies, state governments and nonprofits.
“I’d problem everyone to do the subsequent time you see a truck go by on the street is to do not forget that that automobile isn’t simply delivering sweaters or cereal or TV units. It’s delivering prosperity,” Buttigieg mentioned. “It’s delivering the wanted entry to provide chains that could be a essential a part of our struggle in opposition to inflation, and it’s delivering alternative to that certified individual behind the wheel.”
Attendees additionally heard in regards to the prior army service of Moore, who was flanked by former Rep. Patrick Murphy. Each served within the U.S. Military’s 82nd Airborne Division. Murphy, whose father and grandfather have been each army veterans and truckers, famous, “We’re about 80,000 truck drivers brief, and so they’re vital.”
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