Amendment Containing JOBS Act and College Transparency Act Adopted in America COMPETES Act

On Friday morning, Reps. Andy Levin (D-MI), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL and Bryan Steil (R-WI) introduced an amendment to the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (H.R. 4521) being debated by the House containing language similar to the JOBS Act and College Transparency Act (CTA), two of ACTE’s top legislative priorities. The House approved the amendment by a vote of 238-193, and the entire America COMPETES Act then passed on a largely party-line 222-210 vote.

The JOBS Act would expand learner access to Pell grants to enroll in high-quality, short-term job training programs as little as 150 clock hours and 8 weeks long. These programs benefit both employers and workers by responding to immediate employer demands and creating new pathways or career ladders for workers and students to foster upward mobility. 

The CTA would establish a national postsecondary data reporting system to provide information on student outcomes, such as enrollment, completion and earnings, across postsecondary institutions and career fields. These data are essential to understanding how our postsecondary systems are serving students and businesses, and would significantly increase policymakers’ ability to make improvements to the nation's postsecondary education and training system.  

With the adoption of the amendment and House passage of the America COMPETES Act, this will bring us the closest we have been to expanding Pell Grants to short-term, high-quality training programs and establishing a national postsecondary data reporting system in quite some time! 

The bill will now go to conference with the Senate. The Senate passed its version of the legislation, known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), S.1260, last summer, but did not include these provisions. Stay tuned to CTE Policy Watch for the latest updates and advocacy opportunities as the conference negotiations unfold!

Comments

[linda fontenot]

Most of these trainings are now done at proprietary schools and we are being told that the bill will remove that training already now existing and obtaining funding from those mom and pop, local schools. I don't see where you mentioned this and this is important to mention. If you're telling the news, please share it all.

[Alisha Hyslop]

Linda, thanks for your comment! The version of short-term Pell grants included in this bill would only be eligible to students at public and non-profit private institutions. However, no funds would be removed from proprietary schools or any other institutions -- and this shouldn't effect training programs at those institutions at all. Any existing training at any institution would be able to continue, this bill would just provide a few more students with access to federal Pell grants. Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any additional questions!