Today, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education.
One key theme was the availability of high-skill jobs that will soon be available as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. To this end, Secretary Cardona described the Administration’s Career-Connected High Schools initiative, in addition to the $1.47 billion requested for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Grants program, an increase of $43 million over the fiscal year 2023 enacted level.
Notably, Sec. Cardona was asked by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) about specific plans for STEM and computer science education in low income and rural communities.
“There's a set aside, $100 million, just for rural communities to make sure that we're giving them the opportunities to innovate around STEM education,” said Cardona. This funding would be distributed through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) followed by asking whether he supports efforts to expand federal Pell grants to short-term, high-quality workforce training programs, also known as “short-term Pell.”
“You know, I've been telling educators throughout the country, ‘evolve, you have to change your programing to meet the demand,’ and I think part of that is us also recognizing the benefits of short-term Pell and being open to the benefits of programing that gives students the skills that they need in a shorter period of time,” said Cardona. “And in the same breath, I want to share with you that if we are to consider that, we have to also make sure that we're not putting our students in a disadvantage where they're using Pell dollars, not having it later and not ensuring high quality or accountability for good programing there.”
You can view our coverage of President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget request here, our statement about the budget here, as well as the full hearing at the YouTube link here.
As the appropriations process continues, stay tuned to CTE Policy Watch for the most up-to-date information that may affect the CTE community.
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