President Obama released his FY13 budget today, and there is good news for CTE! The President proposed level funding for the Perkins Basic State Grants, and plans to release a reauthorization proposal that “would restructure CTE to align what students learn in school with the demands of 21^st Century jobs.” While the budget does not include specifics about what this proposal will look like, a budget summary released by the Department of Education states that their proposal would increase the rigor and relevance of CTE and strengthen connections between secondary and postsecondary education. In addition to Perkins Act funding, the budget proposes an investment of $1 billion over three years to scale up career academies.

Some other highlights of the budget that may be of interest:

• Community Colleges – The budget includes funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAA CCCT) program, which provides $2 billion over four years to help community colleges improve and expand their programs to meet local and regional labor market demands. The Budget also funds a new Community College to Career Fund at $8 billion over three years, which is designed to improve access to job training for two million individuals across the nation through State and community college partnerships with businesses.
• Elementary and Secondary Education – The budget would fund programs such as Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, and Promise Neighborhoods. The Administration also seeks to consolidate 38 programs into 11 competitive grant programs “designed to allow States and districts more flexibility to use resources where they will have the greatest impact.”
• STEM – The budget provides $80 million to prepare 100,000 effective STEM teachers, and $30 million for a math education initiative, jointly administered by the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation, to support evidence-based approaches.
• Pathways Back to Work Fund – The budget includes $12.5 billion to support summer and year-round jobs for low-income youth, and will help connect the long-term unemployed and low-income adults to subsidized employment and work-based training opportunities.
• Workforce Innovation Fund – The budget proposes $125 million to spur job training innovation among States and localities through this program which will be jointly administered by the Departments of Labor and Education. This competitive grant will be available to States and regions to implement “bold systemic reforms that break down barriers between programs and provide rewards based on outcomes, particularly in serving disadvantaged populations.

We are continuing to analyze the budget, and will update you on any additional information that could impact CTE.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

Tags: budget, business and industry, career academies, community colleges, federal grants, funding, innovation grants, Job training, Perkins, postsecondary, president, Public Policy, race to the top, Secondary, STEM, teachers, workforce, youth employment

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 11:50 am and is filed under Public Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.