Secretary of Education John King appeared before the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee this week to discuss the Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget request for education. As we previously reported, the budget proposes to level fund the Perkins Basic State Grant program at $1.118 billion. The Administration has requested an additional $75 million for Perkins; however, the additional funds would support the proposed American Technical Training Fund that would provide competitive grants to support job training programs in select fields.
The Administration’s CTE budget proposal was met with a cool reception from the House appropriators. Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) pressed King on requesting additional funds for a new competitive grant that benefits a few CTE programs over the existing formula Basic State Grant that supports secondary and postsecondary CTE nationwide. “Rather than funding a large competition grant, it seems to me that the funds would be better used to support state formula grants which would ensure more students are able to benefit from the CTE experience,” said Roby. Her remarks were echoed by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) who questioned why the department would be funding a “new and unproven program” while still failing to “meet the demands across the rest of the spectrum.” Similar concerns were raised with King by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) during a hearing on the education budget in February. You can follow the FY 2017 funding process on the CTE Policy Watch Blog.
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