This week the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced additional appointments, including the new Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Initiatives. Read below to learn more about this appointment, as well as the “skinny” Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) budget proposal from the Biden Administration and new information from ED regarding safely reopening schools.
ED Announces New OCTAE Deputy Assistant Secretary
Dr. Amy Loyd was announced today as the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Initiatives at OCTAE as well as Acting Assistant Secretary. A full statement from Advance CTE in support of Dr. Loyd’s appointment can be found here. An excerpt from Advance CTE’s Executive Director Kimberly Green is below:
“On behalf of Advance CTE, I am delighted with the appointment of Dr. Amy Loyd as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Initiatives at OCTAE. She is a friend to and advocate of Career Technical Education (CTE), with a deep and long history and commitment to ensuring every learner has access to a high-quality career pathway. Dr. Loyd understands the breadth of CTE – from secondary, postsecondary and adult programs – and has done extensive work developing education programs for historically marginalized populations, including individuals reentering communities from the criminal justice system and Alaska Native and American Indian families. She is a national expert regarding systems change, career pathways, equity, scaling best practices and building more resilient systems and is an excellent, high-qualified choice for this position.”
President Biden Shares FY22 Budget Proposal
Today the Biden Administration submitted an abbreviated version of its FY22 discretionary budget request to Congress which includes a proposed $29.8 billion increase in ED programs. While the “skinny” budget did not include the Administration’s request for Career Technical Education (CTE), it does outline some education and workforce funding levels, including:
- $20 billion increase to Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA);
- $3 billion increase to raise the maximum Pell Grant by $400;
- $600 million increase for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs);
- $203 million to increase Workforce Innovation and Opportunity (WIOA) state grants; and
- $100 million increase to expand registered apprenticeship programs.
A press release can be found here and the full request can be found here. Advance CTE will be monitoring additional updates that come as more detailed information on the budget proposal is shared out.
ED Releases COVID-19 Handbook, Volume 2
In today’s release of the COVID-19 Handbook, Volume 2: Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students’ Needs, ED seeks to provide, “additional strategies for safely reopening all of America’s schools and to promote educational equity by addressing opportunity gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.”
This document expands on the health and safety measures highlighted in Volume 1: Strategies for Safely Reopening Elementary and Secondary Schools, which provided strategies schools can use to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) K-12 Operational Strategy.
In releasing this expansion of Volume 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said, “There is simply no substitute for in-person learning, but as schools reopen their doors, we must also make sure that we are meeting students’ social, emotional, physical, mental-health, and academic needs, and addressing gaps that existed before—and were exacerbated by—the pandemic. This is an opportunity for us to not only reopen our schools safely, but to make sure our education systems are truly serving all our nation’s students.”
The full press release can be found here.
Scott Stump, Senior Advisor and Meredith Hills, Senior Associate for Federal Policy