Pennsylvania's junior Republican senator said
In a tour of Tec Centro in Lancaster, Sen. Dave McCormick touted the importance of a bilingual workforce even as he defended the Trump administration's war on DEI.on Friday touted the importance of a bilingual workforce during a tour of a jobs training center in Lancaster, even as he defended the Trump administration’s assault onDuring a tour of Tec Centro, McCormick, a Republican, underscored the importance of creating job opportunities for underserved communities as he spoke to students, many of them Black and Latino, touring workshop classrooms for electrical, plumbing and carpentry training.
“Everybody has a different interpretation of what DEI means,” the junior senator said during media availability after the tour. “What the administration is trying to discuss, dismantle, is programs that are not based on merit, programs that are pushing a progressive ideology as opposed to something that’s welcoming all Americans.” McCormick toured several of the workshop classrooms at the center, speaking with instructors and students about the value of technical training. “I was on the campaign trail for a year,” McCormick said. “I made about 500 stops to different places and over and over again, I heard, skilled labor, great opportunity. We can’t grow because we can’t get enough people with the right skills. And today we saw the answer to that question and that challenge with great programs for welders and HVAC and electricians and a variety of other key skills that Pennsylvania needs to grow and prosper. And this is a great model.” Tec Centro Workforce Network, a division of the Spanish American Civic Association, bills itself as the primary provider of bilingual education and skills training in Lancaster. In its mission statement, it stresses the core services of providing education and skills training to those who are “unemployed, under-employed, and families living in poverty.”“I think what’s happened in the previous administration and over a long time is the bureaucracy sort of took on a life of its own,” he said. “Our country is investing in a lot of things that most Americans don’t agree with. The elimination of DEI does not mean that we’re eliminating or not welcoming diversity. Diversity can and should be embraced, but the DEI programs that are promoting an agenda that we’ve seen over the last couple months, as it’s been revealed, is what the administration is trying to stop.” Since his election to a second term in the White House, President Donald Trump has made opposition to DEI programs a mainstream Republican position. Trump has issued executive orders targeting DEI programs in education, higher education and both the public and private sector, threatening to withhold billions of dollars in federal monies to any entity that violates his DEI directives. “We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military,” Trump said last month during his address to a joint session of Congress. “And our country will be woke no longer.” Fellow congressional Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster, who joined McCormick on the tour of Tec Centro, echoed the sentiment. “I think what the Trump administration is trying to do is ensure that every American, regardless of their background, regardless of their race, has the opportunity to live the American dream, and that’s what they’re doing,” Smucker said. “The best way to do that, by the way, is create an economy that is creating jobs, that is creating the kind of opportunities that we see here, and then have programs like this who prepare students for those jobs that are available. So I think that’s the focus of the Trump administration.” Sen. Dave McCormick and Rep. Lloyd Smucker touted the importance of a bilingual workforce during visit to Tec Centro in Lancaster.Jose Lopez, CEO of SACA, said he expected the program to continue to thrive in spite of the assault on DEI. “This work exists here regardless of what the talking points are,” he said. “We are faced with folks that come to us that want to get ahead, and some of them have language barriers. So in our facilities, we do English as a second language instruction. We do GED instruction as well, which actually become the forerunners of the students. Some of them that have already participated in those classes then are able to take the classes that are in English here.”“We try not to get involved in these political talking points,” he said. “For me, the work’s always going to be here. The need for what we’re doing here, which is making significant differences in people’s lives, which is why it’s become such a popular thing.”“I mean, the senator said it. Congressman Smucker said it,” Lopez said. “These folks have all been supportive of what we’re doing here. This is a bipartisan thing. The Democratic side has always been supportive of what we’re doing here and if you look at the state legislation that drives the funding that we get, it is bipartisan and it’s really led mostly by state Senator Martin, who represents Lancaster.”If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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