Success 05-21-2015-rgb.indd - National Court Reporters Association

May 21, 2015 • Page 9 • The Eldorado Success
Court Reporting a Lucrative Alternative to a 4-Year Degree
SAN ANGELO — As
high school graduation
quickly approaches, many
students are struggling to
decide their next steps. A
career in court reporting
offers graduating seniors
an attractive alternative to the traditional
four-year college degree.
Lower student loan debt,
high demand for court
reporters, starting salaries in the mid-$40,000s
and many career paths to
choose from make court
reporting an excellent
alternative to traditional
college degrees.
With more than
$1.2 trillion in student
loan debt nationally,
Americans owe more for
their post-secondary education than they do for their
automobiles and credit cards.
According to The Project
on Student Debt, 59 percent
of Texas college graduates
leave school with more than
$25,000 in debt. Court reporting schools typically offer
two-year programs that cost,
on average, the same as one
year of community college.
By comparison, this means a
court reporting graduate will
spend less than half the time
in school and carry less than
one-quarter of the debt of a
student holding a bachelor’s
degree.
An independent study
conducted by Ducker
Worldwide (Ducker), one
of the nation’s leading
marketplace analyst firms,
shows demand for court
reporters will exceed supply within three years,
yielding a nationwide shortage. By 2018, there will be
5,500 new court reporter
jobs available in the U.S.,
with the greatest demand
occurring in California,
Texas, Illinois and New
York. Currently, there
are approximately 32,000
court reporters working
in the U.S. However, the
workforce is aging, and
70 percent of court reporters are over the age of
45. Retirement rates and
new rules adopted by the
Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in 2014
to improve the quality of
broadcast captioning are a
primary driving force for
the projected shortfall.
Ducker also reports
that the average starting
salary for a court reporter
is $43,000. According to
the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the growth rate
for court reporting salaries
is expected to increase by
14 percent through the year
2020. Compare that with an
average starting salary of
less than $40,000 for a bachelor’s degree, and a career
in court reporting is even
more attractive.
“Projected shortages
Pearson Loses Bulk of Texas Student Testing Contract
BY MORGAN SMITH
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
For the first time in three decades,
a new company is poised to develop
and administer the state-required
exams Texas students begin taking in
the third grade. The state is in negotiations with
Educational Testing Service, or ETS,
to take over the bulk of the four-year,
$340 million student assessment
contract, the Texas Education Agency
announced Monday. Company Vice
President John Oswald said ETS is
“privileged and honored” to land the
work. Final contracts are still being
negotiated. The London-based Pearson Education has held the state’s largest
education-related contract — most
recently, a five-year $468 million
deal to provide state exams through
2015— since Texas began requiring
state student assessments in the
1980s. Under the new agreement,
the company would still develop the
state’s assessments designed for special needs and foreign students. That
portion of the contract is worth about
$60 million. As the legislature moved to reduce
the state’s standardized testing program in response to widespread outcry from parents and school leaders in
2013, the state’s contract with Pearson
became the focus of much criticism. Many lawmakers, including
former Senate Education Committee
Chairman and now Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, attacked what they
viewed as the company’s excessive
influence in the policy-making process and called for called for greater
scrutiny of testing contracts. In 2013, the state auditor concluded
that the state education agency did
not adequately oversee the contract
with Pearson. At the time, Education
Commissioner Michael Williams
thanked the auditor’s office for its recommendations, which he said would
be put into effect immediately. in the stenographic court
reporting profession come
at a time when many graduates with traditional fouryear degrees are struggling
to find employment,” said
Sarah E. Nageotte, CBC,
CRR, RDR and President
of the National Court
Reporters Association ( ).
“Court reporting is a career
path with above-average
job security and earning
potential, as compared to its
more traditional counterparts. With opportunities
for court reporters on the
rise, students who graduate
will hold more than a piece
of paper – they’ll hold a job.”
Despite the terminology, only 28 percent of
stenographic court reporters actually work inside a
courtroom day-to-day. Most
operate in a freelance capacity for legal depositions or
provide ADA-compliant
captioning for medical
transcriptions, educational
settings and business meetings. This freelance status
allows court reporters to set
their own schedules, working wherever and whenever
they choose.
For more information
on the court reporting profession and schools in your
area, visit crtakenote.com.
This article originally appeared in
The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/18/pearson-losesbulk-texas-student-testing-contract/.
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