Congress « Advance CTE Blog

Legislative Update: Linked Learning, Green Workforce Development, Republican Pledge to America

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Linked Learning Pathways to College, Career, and Citizenship Success Act

On September 22, Rep. Judy Chu (CA) introduced H.R. 6174, the Linked Learning Pathways to College, Career, and Citizenship Success Act, along with co-sponsor Rep. Barbara Lee (CA). The bill is aimed at preparing students for college and careers through the Linked Learning, or multiple pathways, approach. More specifically, the bill would award grants to school districts in partnership with local stakeholders, including businesses, unions, parent organizations, and other community members. At the district level, grants would be used for planning and implementation of a system of pathway schools around career themes designated as high pay, high growth, and high skill industries. At the school level, students would be exposed to four components: a rigorous academic core aligned to the stateâ€™s postsecondary requirements; career technical education; work-based learning, and supplemental services.

Green Workforce Development Through Community Colleges Act

Rep. Paul Tonko (NY) introduced H.R. 6142, theÂ Green Workforce Development Through Community Colleges Act, which gives authority to the Secretaries of Labor, Energy and Education to jointly develop a workforce training and education program to prepare workers for careers in alternative energy and energy efficiency industries. The bill would award grants to community colleges to reach this goal.

Republican â€œPledge to Americaâ€

Yesterday, Congressional Republicans issued their election policy platform, â€œA Pledge to America.â€Â Education issues are not mentioned, but the document does include a plan to create jobs and make America more competitive if Republicans take control of the Congress in November.Â Their plan would include ending all tax increases, giving tax deductions to small businesses and repealing mandates that harm small businesses. The pledge also outlined a plan to cut spending by reducing discretionary spending to FY 2008 levels, rescinding unused ARRA funds, imposing hard caps on discretionary spending and sunsetting outdated and duplicative programs.

By admin in Legislation, Public Policy
Tags: appropriations, ARRA, budget, college and career readiness, community colleges, Congress, federal legislation, funding, green jobs, Job training, postsecondary, Public Policy, Secondary

Legislative Update: Improving Student Testing Act, Education Jobs Fund

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Congress returned from their August recess this week and is planning to be in session until October 8.

Improving Student Testing Act

Senators Russ Feingold (WI) and Pat Leahy (VT) this week introduced S. 3771, Improving Student Testing Act, which would provide grants to States, SEAs, LEAs and schools to design and implement high-quality and innovative assessments, including adaptive assessments, performance assessments, standardized portfolio assessments, interim assessments, and other assessments that measure higher-order thinking skills and are aligned with common core standards or State challenging academic content standards and challenging student academic achievement standards. This bill is aimed to be a part of the larger Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization which will likely not happen until next year.

Education Jobs Fund

The U.S. Department of Education has approved 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas for Education Jobs funding.Â Texasâ€™ application was denied because it did not contain assurance to spend the money on education over the next three years. Department officials have asked the state to reapply. South Carolina and Wyoming do not have their applications posted on the Departmentâ€™s website.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: accountability, Congress, federal grants, federal legislation, funding, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, Secondary

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 â€œFor-Profit Schools: The Student Recruitment Experience.â€ 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 admin in Legislation
Tags: Congress, federal legislation, funding, Job training, NCLB/ESEA, STEM, veterans

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.Â 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.Â 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 admin in Legislation
Tags: budget, Congress, funding, Legislation, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, teachers

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 Presidentâ€™s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), told the subcommittee that a CB028331 growing 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 â€œwhile 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.â€ Her suggestions for improving the system come from CEAâ€™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 Departmentâ€™s proposed â€œGood Jobs for Everyoneâ€ program that would ensure â€œthat young people have access to careers in high growth industries and the skills they need to compete in the global economy.â€ 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 â€œgreenâ€ 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 admin in Public Policy
Tags: Congress, future, global competition, green jobs, Job training, NCLB/ESEA, postsecondary, technical skills, WIA

Legislative Update: ESEA, Education Jobs Fund, Clean Energy Works Act

Friday, July 30th, 2010

ESEA Reauthorization Unlikely This Year

An article in Wednesdayâ€™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: Â 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. Â These grants need individual company needs, especially to companies that may not be in a regional cluster of similar companies in an industry.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: appropriations, Congress, federal grants, federal legislation, funding, green jobs, Job training, NCLB/ESEA

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 whatâ€™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 Subcommitteeâ€™s bill. We have also learned that the Presidentâ€™s proposed consolidation of Tech Prep was not in this bill, or the House Appropriations Subcommitteeâ€™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 admin in Legislation
Tags: appropriations, budget, Congress, federal grants, federal legislation, green jobs, Job training, NCLB/ESEA, Perkins

Legislative Update: SECTORS Act, DIPLOMA Act, Veterans Training Bill

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

SECTORS Act Passes House with Bipartisan Support

Earlier this week House of Representatives passed H.R. 1855, the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act on a unanimous voice vote. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Loebsack (IA) and Platts (PA) in the House and Senators Brown (OH), Murray (WA) and Snowe (ME) in the Senate. The SECTORS Act would amend the Workforce Investment Act and establishes a new Industry or Sector Partnership Grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. Grants would allow recipients to establish or expand industry or sector partnerships that lead collaborative planning, resource alignment, and training efforts across multiple firms for current and potential workers within the targeted industry cluster. The bill must now be approved by the Senate. You can reach your Senator at (202) 224-3121 to voice your support.

DIPLOMA Act Aims to Increase College and Career Readiness

Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH) introduced S. 3595, the Developing Innovative Partnerships and Learning Opportunities that Motivate Achievement (DIPLOMA) Act which aims to strengthen student achievement and graduation rates and prepare young people for college, careers, and citizenship through innovative partnerships that meet the comprehensive needs of children and youth. States would receive funding that would be used in part to administer competitive grants to local consortia to assess community needs, coordinate existing funding streams, and provide services. Career technical education is specifically mentioned as a permissible of funds by the local consortia.

Among the other permissible use of funds allowed by this bill are multiple pathways to graduation (including dual enrollment programs, early college high schools, dropout prevention strategies, and dropout recovery strategies), job training, career counseling, and internship opportunities.

Senate Committee Looks at Veteranâ€™s Bill

On Wednesday the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held a hearing to examine improvements to S. 3447, the Post 9/11 GI Bill. This bill 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. The Committee is scheduled to hold a markup of pending legislation on August 5, 2010, during which Chairman Akaka (HI) intends to bring the bill up for a vote

By admin in Legislation
Tags: college and career readiness, Congress, dropouts, dual enrollment, early college high school, federal legislation, graduation, Job training, postsecondary, Secondary, sector strategies, veterans, WIA

Legislative Update: FY11 Appropriations

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Yesterday the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a markup of the $176.4 billion FY2011 appropriations bill and passed it by a party-line vote. The bill sets the total education funding level at $1.4 billion less than the Obama Administrationâ€™s request.

You can view the summary tables of appropriations for the Labor, Health and Education Departments here, but the full program funding levels will only be introduced if the bill is considered by the full appropriations committee. From what we can tell, Perkins was level funded in the Houseâ€™s markup. The Workforce Investment Act state grants were increased for the first time in more than a decade, which will allow for training an additional 85,000 workers. Funding for summer youth employment opportunities was also increased by $250 million, which will provide employment for approximately 100,000 young adults, enabling them to gain valuable skills and workplace experience.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: appropriations, Congress, federal legislation, funding, Job training, Perkins, summer youth, WIA

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 16^th. 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 Theyâ€™re Needed Act

Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA) recently introduced H.R. 5671 the Put School Counselors Where Theyâ€™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 admin in Legislation
Tags: appropriations, budget, Congress, federal legislation, funding, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, School counseling, Secondary

Posts Tagged ‘Congress’