GEORGETOWN, Texas — Georgetown ISD is getting more than $450,000 in federal funding to help train the next generation of pilots and aviation professionals.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Tuesday that 32 schools will receive $13.5 million in grants to help attract and train students for careers as pilots and aviation maintenance technicians.
Twelve of those schools will receive $4.5 million from the FAA's Aircraft Pilots Aviation Workforce Development Grants program. The schools can use the funding to create curricula designed to prepare high schools students to become pilots, aerospace engineers or drone operators. The grants can also be used to support teachers' professional development.
Georgetown ISD is the only Texas school district to receive one of the Aircraft Pilots Aviation grants, totaling $462,208.95.
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The other $9 million in grants from the FAA will go to 20 schools as part of the Aviation Maintenance Technical Workers Workforce Development program. Those grants will help "build back the pipeline of maintenance professionals" because, according to the FAA, approximately 20,000 fewer people are working in the aircraft maintenance industry than before the pandemic.
Of those 20 schools, only one is in Texas: the Houston Community College System, which will receive $402,284.