As we enter the new year, check out some of the highlights in the CTE policy and advocacy space from 2025 and help us ring in 2026 with some New Year’s advocacy resolutions and goals.

2025 in Advocacy:

• ACTE advocates sent over 9,600 messages to their policymakers through our Action Center!
  • Our advocates were most active during June and July.
  • We helped tell Congress to support increased funding for education and workforce development through both Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and FY 2026 appropriations bills.
  • The most active states in 2025 were… California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania!
• CTE stakeholders and advocates joined us in recognizing the great CTE programs at Crossland High School in Temple Hills, MD, for the annual CTE Month school visited hosted by ACTE, Prince George’s County Public Schools and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
• ACTE was also joined by CTSOs, students, Hill staff and other stakeholders for our NPS Hill reception, where we all heard from amazing students about the incredible work they do in their various programs.

2025 in Legislative Activity:

• We continued to gain more support in Congress for CTE!
  • Twelve new Representatives and a majority of Senators supported the annual resolution supporting CTE Month!
  • Both chambers maintained their bipartisan support for the resolution!
• It took some time, but Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) in March funding the government at current levels for FY 25. In the face of proposals seeking to cut education funding, the Perkins State Grant funding was maintained at $1.44 billion. Thank you to our advocates who reached to their policymakers to ask them to support more CTE and education funding.
• Congress then turned its attention to passing a budget reconciliation bill that later became the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA). President Trump signed OBBBA in July. Included in the bill were a number of education provisions. In a win for CTE, OBBA included a provision expanding Pell Grant access to short-term programs between 8 and 15 weeks – a longtime priority for ACTE! Other provisions included:
  • OBBA addressed the looming Pell shortfall by providing $10.5 billion in mandatory funding. The bill also eliminated Pell eligibility for students who have higher family resources or already are already receiving other grants that cover the cost of college.
  • The bill added caps to student loans for graduate programs, eliminated both the Grad PLUS loan program while scaling back Parent PLUS program, and consolidated all existing repayment plans into two options (a standard or an income-driven plan).
  • It created a school voucher program tax credit program. Under the new program, individuals can receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). These SGOs then issue scholarships/vouchers that families can use for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation, textbooks, special-needs services and other expenses, including for public school students.
• When FY 2025 ended on September 30, lawmakers unfortunately had not reached a final deal for FY 26 funding. As a result, the government shut down and remained closed for 43 days, a new record. Lawmakers eventually came to an agreement to end the shutdown and pass a short-term CR in November. The CR will last through January 30. Lawmakers are busy working to pass either another CR or full-year funding for FY 26.

Do you have any advocacy resolutions? Here are a few to get you started!

• Send at least five advocacy messages to your federal policymakers (you can do this through ACTE’s Action Center!)
• Set up a meeting with your federal policymaker’s education staff person (virtual, in your state, or at NPS!). Educate them on CTE, establish yourself as a resource and make the case!
• Keep up with CTE policy updates so that you never miss a beat!
  • Follow us on socials! @ACTEpolicy on X (formerly Twitter) and @ACTEpolicy.bsky.social on Bluesky
  • Subscribe to our Legislative Alerts!
  • Subscribe to get alerts from the CTE Policy Watch Blog!
• Have conversations with your family, friends and colleagues on why CTE matters and what you can all do to help support students, families and local industry!