Posts Tagged ‘NCLB/ESEA’

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Legislative Update: Education Jobs, Veteran’s Training Bill, For-Profit Recruitment, STEM Education Bill

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Education Jobs Clears the Senate

The Senate voted yesterday to pass the Murray-Harkin amendment, which includes $10 billion for education jobs and $16.1 billion for federal Medicaid payments. The amendment passed 61-39, with Senators Collins and Snowe the only Republicans to join all Democrats in voting for it. The House is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Tuesday for a vote on the bill..

Veteran Employment Assistance Act

The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approved S. 3234, Veteran Employment Assistance Act of 2010, which would improve employment, training, and placement services furnished to veterans, especially those serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The bill will now be reported to the full Senate for consideration.

Senate HELP Hearing on For-Profit Schools

On Wednesday the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on “For-Profit Schools: The Student Recruitment Experience.” The Committee heard from Gregory Kutz of GAO who recently conducted an investigation into the recruitment process at proprietary schools and found that the abuses are systemic and that oversight is lax. Joshua Pruyn, a former admissions representative at Westwood College, also testified about enrollment quotas imposed on reps, awards given for enrolling students, and the psychological games they were encouraged to play with prospective students.

21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA) introduced H.R. 6078, the 21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act. This bill would amend ESEA to provide grants to LEAs to encourage girls and underrepresented minorities to pursue studies and careers in STEM.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Senate Moves Forward on Education Jobs Fund

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

After a series of fits and starts, Congress is nearing the finish line on passing the education jobs fund. Today, the Senate invoked cloture on an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill containing the education jobs fund. The amendment provides $10 billion for education jobs and $16.1 billion for federal Medicaid payments. The funding in this amendment would be fully paid for, and would reduce the deficit by $3 million over ten years and $1.371 billion over eleven years. While the amendment still needs to be passed, the cloture vote marked forward progress on the stalled amendment. If the 30 hours of post-cloture time is not yielded back, that vote will be around 5 pm tomorrow, and if the Senate passes the bill (only 51 votes are needed), it will have to go to the House for a vote.  The House left for summer recess last week, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) just announced that the House will be called into session next week to pass the bill once the Senate completes action.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Senate Hearing on the State of the American Child

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Last week the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the second hearing in a series to address the state of the American child. This hearing looked at the impact of federal policies on children.

Dr. Cecilia Rouse, a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), told the subcommittee that a CB028331growing number of jobs require workers with greater analytical and interactive skills, but that students are not prepared to enter postsecondary, where they are most likely to acquire these skills. She went on to say that “while the current U.S. education and training system has been shown to provide valuable labor market skills to participants, it could be more effective at encouraging completion and responding to the needs of the labor market.” Her suggestions for improving the system come from CEA’s report Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow which we told you about last summer. She also said that federal legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Workforce Investment Act would help the United States develop training and education systems that are once again first in the world.

Seth Harris, Deputy Secretary from the U.S. Department of Labor outlined the Department’s proposed “Good Jobs for Everyone” program that would ensure “that young people have access to careers in high growth industries and the skills they need to compete in the global economy.” He went on to stress the importance of WIA youth programs that prepare young adults with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in 21st century careers and emerging fields such as healthcare and “green” jobs.

Sen. Robert Casey (PA), during questioning, emphasized that there needs to be a comprehensive strategy to bring together all of the agencies and programs that focus on youth so that they are more effective at providing services to and improving the lives of children. He suggested that CEOs and business leaders could play an important role in supporting a strategy for comprehensive reform.

By Nancy in Public Policy
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Legislative Update: ESEA, Education Jobs Fund, Clean Energy Works Act

Friday, July 30th, 2010

ESEA Reauthorization Unlikely This Year

An article in Wednesday’s Washington Post sums up what we have been piecing together for some time — ESEA will probably not be reauthorized this year. While the President has made education a top priority and Congress has held hearings and is working behind the scenes to hammer out a bipartisan bill, progress has been slow and the upcoming elections make Congress wary of moving such a controversial piece of legislation. Former Secretary of Education and Republican Senator on the HELP Committee, Lamar Alexander (TN) does not think we will see a bill this year: “I’d say time is up,” Alexander said Tuesday. “I don’t see it happening.” In an interview with the National Journal the same day, Chairman George Miller (CA) of the House Ed and Labor Committee said that he and Ranking Member John Kline (MN) have agreed to work through August on a bill and want to be ready when the opportunity arises to introduce it. Only time will tell what Congress will do, but we will keep you posted on any new developments.

Education Jobs Fund Stripped from Supplemental

While the House voted earlier this month to include the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund in the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate lacked the votes to include the fund in their version of the supplemental. As a result, House Democrats have accepted the Senate’s plan to pass a stripped-down supplemental bill and are seeking another vehicle for the Education Jobs Fund.

Clean Energy Works Act

Sen. Patty Murray (WA) recently introduced S. 3631, the Clean Energy Works Act which would help prepare workers for clean energy careers. In addition to expanding the State Energy Program and making investments in national clean energy research, the bill would provide grants to clean energy companies for job training:

  • Regional Energy Alliance Skills Grants:  Competitive grants to producers of low-carbon producing energy industries in states or multi-state regions to educate, train, hire, and retain the skilled workers they need to grow their ability to provide energy at scale.
  • Regional Industry Energy Efficiency Grants: Competitive grants to industries that are high energy consumers (such as within manufacturing) to train or retrain workers to have the skills necessary to reduce their energy use through the use of new equipment, new practices, or other means.
  • Customized Renewable Energy Training Grants: Competitive grants to single companies either in the low-carbon producing energy industry, or an industry that supports such an industry, to provide the training necessary to have the skilled workforce to be competitive.  These grants need individual company needs, especially to companies that may not be in a regional cluster of similar companies in an industry.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Marks Up Education Bill

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

On Tuesday the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education held a markup of and approved by voice vote their FY 2011 appropriations bill. While the text of the bill is not available, the subcommittee did release a summary of what’s included in the bill. There is no mention of Perkins funding in the summary, but we have heard from the Committee for Education Funding that Perkins was flat funded in the Subcommittee’s bill. We have also learned that the President’s proposed consolidation of Tech Prep was not in this bill, or the House Appropriations Subcommittee’s bill that they marked up earlier this month.

Some highlights of this bill:

  • An increase of nearly $163.6 million over the fiscal year 2010 level for state grants for job training and employment services, for a total of $3.8 billion.
  • $25 million increase for the Green Jobs Innovation Fund, for a total of $65 million.
  • $14.9 billion for Title I grants to local education agencies for improving education for low-income students. This amount is $450 million higher than the budget request and the fiscal year 2010 funding level.
  • $242 million for five new Workforce Innovation Funds, which will be administered jointly by the Secretaries of Labor and Education, consist of $55 million for dislocated workers, $35 million for adult job training, $95 million for youth, $27 million for disabled individuals and $30 million for adult education programs.

The bill now moves to the full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, but Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), chair of the subcommittee, has indicated that the bill will not go to the floor for a vote before December.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Legislative Update: Education Jobs Fund, FY11 Appropriations, School Counselors Bill

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Education Jobs Bill Uncertain in the Senate

While the House voted last week to pass the Education Jobs Fund, it remains unclear what will happen in the Senate. Last Friday, a group of 13 Democratic Senators, led by Sen. Evan Bayh (IN), sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (HI) opposing the $800 million education offsets in the House bill, while expressing support for the education jobs fund.

FY11 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Markup

House Appropriation subcommittees have begun hearings to markup FY11 appropriations bills, with six bills already marked up. We have heard that the House Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee will markup their FY11 bill next week, possibly on Friday, July 16th. Now that the House passed the Budget Enforcement Resolution, the full House Appropriations Committee can formally make its 302(b) allocations, which set the amounts that each subcommittee has to work with as they set spending limits for programs they have jurisdiction over.

Put School Counselors Where They’re Needed Act

Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA) recently introduced H.R. 5671 the Put School Counselors Where They’re Needed Act. This bill seeks to create a demonstration project in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that would fund additional secondary school counselors in troubled Title I schools in an effort to reduce the dropout rate. While the bill does not specify CTE, it does allow for counseling services such as individual graduation plans, something NASDCTEc supports in our ESEA recommendations.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Legislative Update: ESEA, Veterans’ Training, Education Jobs Fund

Friday, June 18th, 2010

ESEA Work Continues Slowly in Congress

On Wednesday Democrat and Republican leaders of the House and Senate education committees met with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Melody Barnes, the White House Domestic Policy Adviser, to discuss the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Education Week blogged about the meeting, reporting that Congress is working in a bipartisan manner to get the bill done, but that no one in the meeting would commit to a timeline. While Sen. Tom Harkin (IA) had previously stated his desire to get a draft done by Memorial Day, no firm deadlines came out of this meeting. What I have been hearing from Hill staffers in recent weeks is that Congress intends to release a draft this year, but there is not enough time on the legislative calendar to markup a bill, so the earliest ESEA could be reauthorized is next year.

Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act


Sen. Daniel Akaka (HI), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, recently introduced S. 3447, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 which would make changes to the Post-9/11 GI bill which currently provides education funding and benefits to veterans. S. 3447 would allow veterans to use their benefits at educational institutions that do not award associate or higher degrees. This would be a change from the current Post-9/11 GI Bill, which does not allow participants to use funds at a non-degree granting institution. This bill would allow veterans to attend postsecondary education institutions that do not grant associate or higher degrees, such as area career technical schools, career schools, and apprenticeship programs. A hearing has been scheduled for July 21 by the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to review the legislation.

Proposed Education Jobs Fund Faces More Obstacles

As Democrats work to secure votes and offsets for the proposed education jobs fund (which would be attached to the emergency war supplemental), time may be running short. “I am becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of progress on the supplemental and strongly urge Congress to complete its work on the request as quickly as possible,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee during testimony Wednesday.

A proposal to use unspent ARRA funds as an offset to the $23 billion education jobs fund seems unlikely. Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI) had previously opposed Republican attempts to use stimulus funds to offset spending, and will likely oppose Democratic attempts to do the same now. Because of the push to offset spending (to secure more votes), the fund will probably be smaller than $23 billion. Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), chair of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, told CQ, “We probably won’t get the full $23 billion, but we may get something.”

By Nancy in Legislation
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Spellings Takes Over Education and Workforce Initiatives at U.S. Chamber

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced today the retirement of Arthur Rothkopf, senior vice president and counselor to the Chamber president. In this role Rothkopf oversaw the Chamber’s Education and Workforcspellings-300e Initiative, including the Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW). Among other issues, ICW has focused its attention on the integration of CTE and academics as a way to prepare students for postsecondary education and careers.

Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education and current Senior Vice President for the Chamber’s National Chamber Foundation, will take over the Chamber’s education programs in July. As Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009, Spellings oversaw the implementation of No Child Left Behind and is credited with giving states more flexibility in meeting its requirements.

By Nancy in Public Policy
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House ESEA Hearing Highlights CTE as a Turnaround Model

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

On Wednesday the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on “Research and Best Practices on Successful School Turnaround” which looked at ways to turn around the lowest performing schools which produce the highest numbers of dropouts. In his opening remarks, Chairman George Miller (CA) stated that one of the biggest problems to be addressed in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is dropouts. He was critical of the interventions available in No Child Left Behind as well as the Administration’s four proposed turnaround models. He said that the three things that schools and districts need are data, extended learning time and community support.

In his testimony, DDaniel King PSJA House hearingr. Daniel King, Superintendent of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District (PSJA), spoke about the CTE-based strategies he has used to reduce the dropout rate from almost double the state average to less than half the state average in just two years. The district was able to use grant money to open a T-STEM Early College High School where students can earn up to 60 college credit hours (the equivalent of an Associate degree) while still in high school.

Some of the lessons learned by PSJA include:

  • Connecting students to college while still in high school provides flexibility and a seamless transition to college
  • College and career pathways provide rigor and relevance
  • Career and technical education is a viable career pathway if it is based on industry standards, includes college credit and leads to an AA, BA or certification
  • Partnerships – with colleges, workforce and economic development agencies, and philanthropic foundations – accelerate transformation

The district was recently declared a state model for district turnarounds by Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott and was awarded $2,000,000 grant to scale up their efforts.

By Nancy in Legislation
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Latest ESEA Hearings Focus on High Schools and Teachers

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Yesterday, both the Senate and House education committees held hearings related to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee heard from witnesses during Improving America’s Secondary Schools about the importance of stemming the dropout rate, especially identifying at-risk students and using interventions before a student ever reaches high school. Some of the suggestions for helping students succeed in high school included improving adolescent literacy, teacher effectiveness, charter schools, early college high schools, and career academies.

Witnesses stated that while investment in the early grades is important, funding must continue to flow to the middle and high school grades because as the curriculum gets harder, students will need additional supports. Others suggested exposing students to college campuses as early as sixth grade to raise expectations and show students that being a college student is something they can aspire to.

The House Education and Labor Committee addressed issues around teachers and leaders in Supporting America’s Educators: The Importance of Quality Teachers and Leaders which recognized the 300,000 potential layoffs that school personnel face this coming year. Witnesses focused primarily on teacher evaluations, professional development and teacher training.

Regarding the issue of teacher effectiveness, witnesses suggested that teacher evaluations were inappropriate at measuring true progress and that because incentives, like pay scale and tenure, are based on advanced degrees and years of experience, the system does not evaluate what makes a teacher effective. Others stated that teacher training needs to be continuous and take cues from other professions like medicine where the basic skills are not learned on the job but are required before certification is granted.

By Nancy in Legislation
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