Last week President Obama signed legislation that provides funding for six appropriations bills that had not yet been signed into law. This includes the bill that funds the U.S. Department of Education. As we have been aware for months, as this bill has slowly moved through Congress, there is no additional funding for programs supported through the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. These programs are all flat funded at the same level as last year.
So this closes the books on the FY 2010 Federal appropriations process. The opening act of the FY 2011 process begins soon. The first step is the release of the President’s recommendations for FY 2011 which are unveiled in early February. We will of course continue to monitor and influence this process at the Administration level and then after February, when the focus turns to Congress writing appropriations bills, we will be working on Capitol Hill to remind our elected officials of the important role career technical education has in developing a well educated public and a skilled American workforce.
Tags: advocacy, budget, Congress, federal legislation, funding, Legislation, Public Policy