On Friday evening, the House Appropriations Committee released its updated continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 11. The bill, H.R. 1, proposes to cut $100 billion from non-security discretionary funding from a variety of federal programs. Department of Education programs would be cut by $4.899 billion compared to FY10. This includes cutting Title II of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act in its entirety, or $103 million in Tech Prep funding for CTE. This affects ALL states, even those that chose to merge Tech Prep because that portion of funding will be taken from their Basic State Grant.
The House is expected to debate and vote on the CR this week, allowing for amendments that could mean deeper cuts than those in the bill. The Senate will take up the House bill when they return from recess on February 28 and try to work out a compromise before the current CR expires on March 4.
While the President released his FY12 budget today that proposes deeper cuts to Perkins, we are focusing our efforts on the FY11 CR because of the very short timeline to affect change. We will take up the fight on FY12 cuts after this is resolved.
CALL YOUR SENATOR
It is crucial that you contact your Member of Congress (especially your Senator) this week to urge them to preserve Tech Prep funding for FY11!
- Call the Senate at 202-224-3121and the House at 202-225-3121. Ask to be connected to your Members’ offices.
- Once connected to the Member’s office, ask to speak to the staffer that works on appropriations or education issues.
- Tell them to oppose eliminating Tech Prep funding in H.R. 1
SEND US BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY CONTACTS
NASDCTEc is working with ACTE on a sign-on letter to send to business and industry that will show Congress the number and variety of businesses that support Perkins funding and how many of them will be impacted. If you have any contacts in your state, please send them to us, so that we can ask them to sign on to the letter.
RESOURCES
Talking points
- Congress’ rationale for eliminating Tech Prep is that it is duplicative of how funding in the Basic State Grant can be used. You can counter this by saying:
- Any cut to Perkins funding will hurt CTE students in every state. Insert concrete examples and data from your state about how students and programs will be impacted by losing this money. Make the case, where appropriate, that cutting Tech Prep will hurt the state’s economy.
- Some states have chosen not merge Tech Prep with the Basic State Grant so that they can ensure that the full amount of funding is used for these activities. Losing this money will eliminate these programs, as their Basic State Grant funding is being used for other things.
- In the states that have merged, the funding may be used for other programs and activities, thus eliminating Tech Prep funding will actually impact non-Tech Prep activities.
- Also use the talking points on ACTE’s Web site.
State funding chart
- ACTE has put together this chart that shows the impact of Tech Prep cuts on each state. Use these numbers to make the case to your Senator that these cuts will hurt his or her state.
Key Members to contact are those on the:
- Senate Appropriations Committee
- Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education
- Senate Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
- House Appropriations Committee
- House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education
- House Education and the Workforce Committee
If you have any questions or to update NASDCTEc on your contact with Congress, please call Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager at 301-588-9630 or email her at nconneely@careertech.org
Tags: advocacy, appropriations, budget, business and industry, Congress, funding, Perkins