Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell speaks about housing, childcare, career tech at FISTA workforce

Housing, childcare and career tech were among the topics discussed at a FISTA Workforce event Monday at FISTA Innovation Park.

Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell spoke to a roundtable of speakers about the workforce and the challenges others witness.

“If we don’t address those challenges here in Oklahoma, I assure you Arkansas is trying to address those challenges,” Pinnell said.

Pinnell said Oklahoma is No. 9 in the country for net migration growth.

“More Texans moved to Oklahoma than Oklahomans have moved to Texas,” Parnell said. “Give our homegrown boys and girls every opportunity to stay right here in their hometowns, then we’re onto something, then we have the tax base, we have the taxpayers that we need.”

Pinnell said if no one talks about how the workforce is operating, legislators won’t act and no one will be accountable.

“We now have an entity in the state that is kind of the central clearinghouse for everything workforce,” Pinnell said. “We have a nine-person Workforce Commission. That commission can work with legislators if it needs to turn in model legislation, or more importantly, what the commission is going to do in the future.”

One speaker said Lawton is in the top 15 percent in affordability when it comes to housing.

“Sales prices are about $178,000 with a number of properties that are better than most as far as listings for sale,” he said. “We probably could use another apartment complex or two.”

The speaker said one of the things discussed with a Fort Sill officer was the need for more affordable housing for enlisted soldiers.

“The lowest housing allowance is about $1,018,” he said. “We’re looking at ways that we can get more either multifamily or single family housing, where we can get a price point per month in rent.”

Pinnell said the Oklahoma Housing Stability Act, passed last legislative session, is about $250 million that is pooled for developers.

“I don’t know if Lawton would qualify,” Pinnell said. “It was modeled after what a few other states have been doing. Before we did that, there wasn’t a lot of incentives that the state was offering. In rural communities in particular, tax credit programs and the like were really pushing developers outside of Tulsa and Oklahoma City and getting national builders.”

Pinnell said when it comes to the military bases, there’s only so much they can do.

“I don’t know if the housing for some of those soldiers were what I saw in Altus, but it wasn’t pretty,” Pinnell said. “We can’t come in and pay for that. We have to go through a much more bureaucratic process and even the state to upgrade that house and we want to do that.”

Pinnell said Lawton’s labor participation rate is currently 63-64 percent.

“For us to increase our labor participation rate, we need to make it as easy as possible for someone to get back into the workplace,” Pinnell said.

Child care

Brittany Lee, director of Childcare Services of Oklahoma Human Services, said in Oklahoma, there are 3,300 licensed childcare programs.

“Lawton has 59 open available childcare centers and programs,” Lee said. “Of those 59 programs, nine of them actually received … a desert grant.”

Lee said Lawton is considered a chapter desert, which means there aren’t enough childcare programs based on how many families participate in the programs.

Career tech

Pinnell said the career tech system is one of the best tools in the state. Along with higher education, one of the ways career tech contributes to the workforce is by working with the K-12 system.

“We have some skill needs of employers in this state,” Pinnell said. “Getting a certificate at a career tech, they can go directly to work and we have a system in Oklahoma. … A lot of states are very jealous about our current tech system because of that.”

Pinnell said there is a waiting list for students to attend career techs.

“Last year, it was over 11,000 kids on the waiting lists,” Pinnell said. “The new superintendent got that down to about 9,000 without asking the Legislature for more money.”

Pinnell said career tech is asking the Legislature for an extra $20 million to address the waiting list.

“We have kids who are working adults and want a new life, to get a skill within 18 months and to go to work,” Pinnell said. “That is money well spent.”