Today, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved its Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 education funding bill. The bill proposes level funding for both the Perkins Basic State Grant at $1.118 billion and Perkins National Programs at $7.4 million. These funding levels are consistent with the bill that Senate appropriators passed through committee in June. Despite reducing the education budget overall by $1.3 billion and cutting or eliminating many education programs, the committee chose to maintain funding for CTE!
Unlike the Senate bill, the House does not include a restoration of year-round Pell grants, which would allow students who have exhausted their award for an academic year to receive aid for an additional term (it did follow the Senate’s lead in increasing the Pell maximum award to $5,935). The House also chose not to continue a grant program intended to accelerate and expand state apprenticeship strategies and grow the use of apprenticeships in new industries—the Senate requested $100 million to fund that effort for a second year. Additionally, the bill includes provisions prohibiting the department from moving forward with its “gainful employment” regulations and new requirements on teacher preparation programs.
Among the federal workforce training programs, the formula state grants under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act for both youth and adults were level funded, with a slight increase for the dislocated worker grant. The Adult Education and Family Literacy state grant program was also level funded in the House bill
The full committee will take up the bill on July 13. Please take a few minutes to contact your Representative to urge a strong investment in Perkins!
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