Since taking office on January 20th, President Joe Biden has already signed 30 executive orders and taken various other actions aimed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and deal with the ongoing economic crisis. There were also a number that dealt with education and workforce training. Below is a list, with short explanations, of those actions most relevant to CTE.
- Student Loan Payments – On his first day, President Biden requested that ED extend the pause on federal student loan repayments and collections and to also keep the interest rate at 0%.
- School Re-opening – This executive order focuses on the Administration’s role increating the conditions for safe, in-person learning as quickly as possible and ensuring high-quality instruction and the delivery of essential services to students and young children at school, institutions of higher education, childcare providers and Head Start programs. Specifically, it directs the Secretary of Education to work with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop evidence-based guidance to help schools and postsecondary institutions decide whether and how to reopen and how to safely conduct in-person instruction, among a number of other provisision.
- Ensuring a Sustainable Health Care Workforce – This executive order includes a provision that focuses on understanding the challenges the health care industry faces in pandemic response efforts, including challenges recruiting and training sufficient personnel to ensure adequate and equitable community-based testing.
- Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government – This executive order revoked former President Trump's Executive Order 13950 on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which restricted the types of equity-related training and professional development federal agencies, contractors and grant recipients (including Perkins recipients) could provide, potentially impacting the work of CTE educators to close equity gaps.
Additional orders are expected this week with a series of themed days covering racial equity, climate, health care and immigration. We will continue to update the CTE Policy Watch Blog to ensure that you remain aware of actions taken as they relate to education and CTE.
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