CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

DC Digest: September 24-30

• Eguene Scalia Confirmed as New Labor Secretary: On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Eugene Scalia to replace Alex Acosta as the Secretary of Labor by a vote of 53-44. Son of late Supreme Court justice Antoine Scalia, his background is in cooperate law. Scalia will take over the lead of the Department of Labor, which oversees the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and apprenticeships, among many other programs.
• Federal Focus on School Safety: On Wednesday, the Trump Administration released a new school safety district guide as part of an effort to support schools in developing and maintaining emergency and operations plans. The House of Representatives also maintained its spotlight on school safety issues. On Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery held a hearing about perceptions on school security, as well as testimony from family members of those killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
• Decrease in Federal Aid for Children: A new report from the Urban Institute found that federal spending on children (including funds spent on education, health care, nutrition and various tax benefits) is at the lowest level in a decade, below two percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and funds are projected to continue to decline from the current level of $41 billion in 2018 to $36 billion in 2029. Although overall investments in children has decreased, federal investments in programs that benefit children from low-income families increased to 61 percent of all child-related expenditures.

New Department of Education Perkins-related Resources

In recent weeks, the Department of Education has released several new or updated resources related to CTE and Perkins V:

• An updated set of state Perkins profiles is now available at https://cte.ed.gov/profiles/national-summary. These profiles now contain the breakdown of state-level funding for FY 2019, the first year of Perkins V implementation, as well as copies of each state’s transition plan (available under the “Data Downloads” tab).
• A new video and discussion guide around Career Guidance in Perkins V is available at https://cte.ed.gov/legislation/perkins-v. The video features an introduction from Assistant Secretary Scott Stump and is designed to provide conversation starters for states and local leaders as they work to address this topic within state plans, and an example from the state of Pennsylvania about their work in this area.
• A new “CTE Data Story” has been released by the Department and is available at https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/cte/index.html. This interactive, visual piece integrates data from several sources, including the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and the 2018 Perkins Consolidated Annual report, among others, to share information about CTE participation and outcomes.

Rep. Trahan (D-MA) Introduces Legislation Aimed to Strengthen Postsecondary CTE Programs

On September 18, Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MA), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Kendra Horn (D-OK), and Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) introduced H.R. 4371, the Strengthen CTE in Higher Education Act. This legislation would authorize the creation of a five year, $181 million grant program aimed to foster greater investments in postsecondary CTE programs. The program would also specifically increase funding for tribally controlled postsecondary CTE institutions by $10.5 million. Under the bill, additional funding would be distributed through the existing Perkins formula to institutions of higher education who established partnerships across the education and workforce system to carry out CTE programs of study.

To read the text of the bill, click here. A press release, including a quote from ACTE’s Executive Director LeAnn Wilson, can be found here. 

2028 Employment Projections Show Relevance of CTE

WorkforceGPS has released long-term employment projections for 2018 to 2028 that cover more than 800 occupations and 290 industries at the national level. The report presents trends and projections for in-demand industries, and the growth and decline in different sectors.

The first key trend is the slowing population and slowing labor force growth. The analysis projects only half of a percentage point of growth in the labor force between 2018 and 2028, which is significantly slower than in prior decades. Though labor force and population growth are both slowing, labor force growth is declining faster than population growth because of the aging population. Unemployment is still low, even though the boost in employment that occurred between 2010 and 2018 is no longer present.

Another finding is that health care occupations are projected to increase faster than any other sector, with 6 of the 10 fastest-growing occupations related to health care. Following health care, the next two fastest-growing occupations are in personal care and service, followed by computer and mathematical occupations. The jobs that are projected to decline are production, office and administrative support, and sales and related occupational groups. Automation is mostly driving the decline in these areas.

The last key finding is that low-skilled occupations have the most job openings. However, occupations that require some kind of postsecondary education pay more and are projected to grow faster.

Racial Equity in CTE Programs

Addressing equity in middle-skills jobs is essential for the growth of the nation’s businesses, economy and workers. In order to advance racial equity, the National Skills Coalition recommends nine steps that states can take to increase the diversity in the workforce. These recommendations include adopting racial equity goals; investing in local infrastructure, technical assistance and guidance; providing support services; developing stackable credentials; removing barriers to educational entry; and utilizing industry and business partnerships to advance racial equity.

The report presents several recommendations specific to CTE. The first recommendation is to include racial equity goals in the new Perkins V state plans. The publication encourages states to build on federal requirements by adding specific goals for racial equity through access and outcomes measures. Other recommendations include increasing funding for classes that contextualize English language learning within CTE, increasing the diversity and inclusion practices of industry and business partnerships, and helping students find a career path more quickly. To achieve this, secondary CTE programs should combine high school credentials with postsecondary, industry-recognized credentials. Schools and programs need to invest more and increase technical assistance to enhance diversity and inclusion to achieve success.

Perkins V also addresses racial equity through the comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA), for which local recipients must review their data to find and address equity gaps for a number of students groups, including by race and ethnicity. Additionally, local recipients and states must report data disaggregated by gender, race and ethnicity, and special population status for federal accountability purposes.

To support CLNA, ACTE has developed a local guide to CLNA, which includes guiding questions to ask, materials to review and stakeholders to consult as part of evaluating the root causes of access and performance gaps and developing strategies to increase access and equity in CTE programs. In addition, Access and Equity is one of the 12 elements of high-quality CTE in ACTE’s Quality CTE Program of Study Framework. Our related High-quality CTE Tools online library includes resources ranging from toolkits to reports, addressing topics such as inclusivity in promotional materials and strategies for equity gap and root cause analysis.

Senate Passes CR, Extends Funding Until November 21

On Thursday, the Senate passed H.R. 4378, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019, by a vote of 82 – 15. This bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), extends government funding at the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 levels, with several exceptions, until November 21, 2019. Congress regularly uses CR’s to fund the federal government for a limited amount of time to avoid a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to enact the appropriation bills that are necessary to fund the federal government for the full fiscal year.

This specific measure not only extends funding, but also temporarily reauthorizes several programs that were scheduled to expire at the end of FY2019. These programs include the National Flood Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, among others. Further, the bill includes a provision that allows the Department of Agriculture to continue making payments to farmers that have been affected by the tariffs in the on-going trade situation with China.

The White House has signaled its support for the legislation and the President intends to sign it into law.

Moving Forward

This resolution now gives the House and Senate an additional seven weeks to reach an agreement on spending for the 12 appropriations bills for FY2020 before facing a government shutdown. As of September 25, the House has passed 10 appropriation bills, including the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education bill, but the Senate has yet to pass any, so there is still significant work to do. Once each perspective chamber passes its funding bills, they will “go to conference.” That is when a temporary committee is formed, made up of members from both the House and Senate, to work out the differences between the two versions of each bill. Then, the bills go back to each chamber to be voted upon, before going to the President to be signed into law.

In terms of Perkins funding, the House-passed Labor, HHS and Education bill would provide an additional $47 million to Perkins Basic State Grants, bringing the total to $1.31 billion. In the Senate, Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced a bill that would level fund Perkins Basic State Grants at FY2019 levels, or $1.263 billion. There is still time for the funding levels to change as the process unfolds. We urge you to contact your Senators and ask them to increase Perkins funding in FY20 to at least match the House totals.

DC Digest: September 17-23

• U.S. Department of Education Back to School Tour: Scott Stump, the assistant secretary for career, technical and adult education, visited New Mexico, Arizona (1 and 2), Nevada and West Virginia schools as part of the Education Department’s National Back to School Tour. He was visiting to see the CTE work being done in high schools and community colleges.
• New Report on Allowing Funds from IDEA for Dual Enrollment and Postsecondary Transition: On Tuesday, the Department released a question and answer guide on “Increasing Postsecondary Opportunities and Success for Students and Youth with Disabilities.” This guide addresses how stakeholders can coordinate to assist students with disabilities in high schools and postsecondary institutions who are participating in early college, dual enrollment or postsecondary transition programs by using funding allocated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
• Committee for Education Funding (CEF) Legislative Conference and Gala: On Wednesday, CEF hosted a legislative conference addressing the history and future of education funding and America’s views on financing education. A gala followed the conference. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) was awarded the James G. O’Hara Award for outstanding leadership in advocacy for education, and Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) was awarded the William H. Natcher Award for elevating education as a priority to ensure better opportunities for students.

New Report on the Skilled Technical Workforce

The National Science Board (NSB) released a report titled, The Skilled Technical Workforce: Crafting America’s Science and Engineering Enterprise. Its findings are based on stakeholder engagement meetings with relevant organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as nationwide listening sessions that NSB conducted with workers, students, businesses and educators.

NSB found four main challenges that the Skilled Technical Workforce (STW) is facing:

Meeting students where they are, and designing STW education around those needs. The researchers reported the need to center programs around students that work within the constraints of students’ lives. The researchers stressed that lifelong learning is the new reality, and in order to have a skilled and capable workforce, programs need to meet students where they are.

Building partnerships among STW stakeholders. Partnerships between government, industry and educational institutions should occur in order to avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach. This allows communities to align curricula to meet local community needs.

Increasing awareness of employment and career opportunities in the STW. The report emphasizes that there are numerous paths to educational and career success. The paths should not be presented as an “either-or” option, instead, the STW should aim to complement rather than compete with other education paths. NSB reports that learners pursuing careers in the STW have opportunities for higher earning potentials, greater job selection and to pursue additional postsecondary STEM education.

Data gaps are creating challenges in establishing a system-wide approach to the STW. Stakeholders are finding it difficult to assess the STW in order to create new programs and partnerships, as well as disseminate information to the public about opportunities within the STW. NSB says that this will be a long-term project that will require the input of multiple organizations for data, however, it is crucial for the continued development of the STW for there to be system-wide data.

Based on the systemic challenges the STW faces, NSB proposes interconnected recommendations, relevant to CTE, for policymakers and STW leaders:

Change the message. The report states that there needs to be an acceptance of various educational paths that are complementary and interdependent. Students should be able to make an educational choice based on their own informed preferences.

Focus on the data. NSB recommends that data should be collected on a wide range of characteristics of the STW, and partnerships between stakeholders should develop to enable collaboration of resources and data.

Build partnerships. NSB recommends that STW stakeholders should work together to fit local community needs. To incentivize this, NSB says policymakers should further develop federal programs to require partnership participation from stakeholders.

Americans Support a Variety of Postsecondary Pathways

New America has released a report titled, Varying Degrees 2019: New America’s Third Annual Survey on Higher Education. The report is based on a survey of 2,029 Americans and their perceptions of education after high school and education’s contribution to economic mobility.

Relevant to CTE, the report found that Americans value various postsecondary educational pathways. More than eight in ten respondents felt comfortable with their child choosing an apprenticeship, technical degree/certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree.

Another CTE-related finding was that 90 percent of respondents answered that postsecondary education beyond high school will contribute to increased earning potential. While some respondents believed that a high school diploma alone can lead to a lasting career, significantly more recognized the importance of postsecondary education.

Both findings point to the increased understanding and appreciation across the country for the value of CTE, and for multiple paths to upward economic mobility. The survey indicates that the majority of Americans recognize that some type of postsecondary education is a critical component to achieving career success.

Senate Committee Flat Funds Education Appropriations Bill

On September 12th, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on, and passed along party lines, the 302(b) allocations for each of the twelve appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2020. The 302(b) allocation is the total amount of discretionary funds the bill has for all of the programs within it. 

The committee essentially flat funded the Labor-HHS-Education (Labor-H) bill, only giving it an increase of $223 million, or .1%, bringing the total to $178.299 billion. This is almost $12 billion less than what the House allocated earlier this year when they passed their version of the bill. During the mark-up, committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) offered an alternative allocation that would have given Labor-H an additional $3.3 billion, but it was ultimately not approved. 

The future of the Senate Labor-H appropriations measure, and the overall level of Perkins funding, is still unclear after it was abruptly taken off the mark-up calendar last week because of a disagreement over a health-care related amendment. With government funding running out at the end of the month, the Senate must act in order to prevent another government shutdown. What is likely to happen is that both chambers will pass a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that would extend funding at FY19 levels through the end of November to give them time to work out the FY20 bills.

With a mark-up still on the horizon, and Perkins funding levels still in the balance, we continue to ask you to contact your Senators to urge them to increase Perkins funding in FY20.

9/18 UPDATE: On September 18th, Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) released the proposed text for the Senate Labor-H appropriations bill. It provides $71.4 billion for the Department of Education, which is $100 million less than the FY19 enacted levels, and $1.263 billion for the Perkins Basic State Grant, which is the same as the FY19 enacted levels. The funding levels in the draft text are only proposed, and are not the final committee numbers until they hold a markup and vote on the legislation. The committee still has not announced when the markup will take place, which means there is still time for the funding levels to change, including the Perkins Basic State Grant. We still urge you to contact your Senators and ask them to increase Perkins funding in FY20.

If you would like to read the bill text in its entirety, click here.