On June 28, the House Education and the Workforce Committee announced its much-anticipated bill to reauthorize the Perkins Act, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, sponsored by Reps. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), co-chair of the House CTE Caucus, and Katherine Clark (D-MA). The bipartisan committee bill is the first comprehensive reauthorization of Perkins to be considered by Congress in a decade.
“The importance of career and technical education has grown exponentially across the country since the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act was passed unanimously by Congress in 2006,” said Thompson. This well-engineered and robust reauthorization aims to close our nation’s skills gap by creating clear pathways to education and training for students eager to pursue careers in vital technical fields.” ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson applauded “our partners in Congress for their work to begin the Perkins reauthorization process in releasing this bill, as well as the spirit of bipartisanship that has made that work possible.”
The bill text, detailed summary and fact sheet are available online.
The bill seeks to streamline Perkins and better align it with other education and workforce development laws, including the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and Every Student Succeeds Act. It incorporates many of ACTE’s Perkins reauthorization priorities. ACTE is still reviewing the full text of the bill and will be providing more information in the coming days, but highlights from the bill include:
- Maintaining the Basic State Grant as a formula grant program, and maintains the current federal-to-state and state-to-local formulas
- Establishing formal definitions for “CTE concentrator”, “Program of study,” and “Work-based learning,” and emphasizing programs of study throughout the law
- Simplifying the current accountability indictors, aligning where possible with other education and workforce reporting requirements
- Increasing the amount of funds states can set aside as part of their “reserve fund” from 10 percent to 15 percent to assist rural areas or areas with a significant number of CTE students
- Repealing the requirement that states must negotiate levels of performance with the Secretary of Education, and prevents the Secretary from withholding funds from a state for not meeting targets
- Introducing a new local application process and a biennial needs assessment to be conducted in partnership with local stakeholders; this new process significantly streamlines the local plan process from current law
- Streamlining local uses of funds, with an emphasis on career exploration and awareness activities, educator professional development, and implementing elements of high-quality CTE programs of study
- Authorizing $1.133 billion in funding for the Basic State Grant program for the first year the law takes effect, an increase over current levels, with increases for each of the five remaining years of the authorization
The committee is expected to take up the bill in the coming weeks. Check back to the CTE Policy Watch Blog for more analysis and updates.
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