The U.S. Government and Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a study on how CTE programs are supporting learners. Researchers interviewed state education officials in Delaware, Georgia, Ohio and Washington; representatives from eight CTE program providers; 14 stakeholders such as employer partners; and individuals from six national CTE organizations. This blog post summarizes the report’s key findings on funding sources and strategies that states and programs use to assist CTE learners and challenges faced in supporting CTE learners.

Funding Sources and General Support Strategies: In addition to Perkins V grants, the majority of CTE providers interviewed reported using other federal education grants, such as Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants and Adult Education State Grants, to fund programs. Half of providers stated they primarily use state and local education funds to service CTE classrooms and labs. Additionally, a few providers reported utilizing philanthropic donations and other federal grant funding, such as Department of Labor grants, the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technical Education Program and the Department of Defense’s Manufacturing and Engineering Education Program.

CTE providers also employed non-funding strategies to assist CTE learners through the comprehensive local needs assessment and business and industry partnerships, among other methods.

Programmatic Challenges: The report also outlined programmatic challenges to supporting CTE learners. The following are three key areas respondents identified as challenges:

Delivery: Respondents cited major delivery challenges related to limited funding; limited staff capacity, including a lack of racially and ethnically diverse educators; and negative perceptions of CTE. To address these challenges, providers and officials described braiding different sources of funding; recruiting CTE graduates of Tribal schools to return as teachers; and conducting outreach activities to inform parents about the benefits of CTE.

Access: Interviewees also identified access challenges in CTE for work-based learning, mostly due to lack of transportation options; limited social supports, including language barriers; inflexible scheduling; a lack of childcare services; and difficulties accessing aid for postsecondary nondegree programs. Respondents cited efforts to increase student access including hiring a work-based learning coordinator to identify opportunities and transportation options; translating CTE materials into multiple languages; and offering online instruction.

Replication: State officials and CTE providers reported difficulties in identifying and replicating effective CTE program strategies due to a lack of data, particularly longitudinal data that crosses systems, and evidence-based strategies. Some ways interviewees addressed replication challenges include developing a data-sharing partnership with federal and state agencies; creating a postsecondary data system; and researching existing evidence-based strategies that demonstrate positive outcomes for special populations.

The GAO report also outlines ways in which the U.S. Department of Education supports CTE programs. These strategies include administering grants, providing technical assistance, partnering with other federal agencies and expanding research.

Last year, Congress brought back the usage of earmarks, now known as “community project funding” (CPF), to help facilitate bipartisan agreement and speedier passage of federal funding bills. Earmarks are used by Members of Congress to guarantee funding for specific projects or grantees that would benefit their state or district (you can find ACTE’s summary of relevant FY 2022 earmarks here). They cannot exceed 1% of total overall appropriations. The House Appropriations Committee has released CPF guidelines for FY 2023, opening opportunities for CTE programs to submit requests to their Members of Congress.  

While the House deadline for offices to submit CPF requests is April 27th, offices will likely set their own deadlines before that date. Therefore, you should reach out to your representatives as soon as possible to initiate project requests. All project requests must fit a few general rules to be eligible:  

• Cost should be between $100,000 and $2 million, although larger projects may be considered 
• Cannot restrict participants based on race, ethnicity, or gender 
• Cannot be for construction or renovation, except in the case of minor remodeling required as part of a technology upgrade 
• Cannot include multi-year funding  
• Cannot fund any for-profit entities  
• Neither the Member of Congress nor the immediate family can have a financial interest in the proposed project 
• Lobbyists, donors or other affiliated parties or their immediate families cannot have a financial interest in the proposed project 

Within education, the Appropriations Committee is considering CPF requests under the Department of Education’s Innovation and Improvement Fund for K-12 projects and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) for postsecondary projects. Based on committee guidance, they are seeking project requests related to the following areas:  

K-12 Projects 

• Project Areas: instructional services, after-school centers, curricula development, teacher training, acquisition of books and computers, arts education, social and emotional learning activities, and full-service community schools. 
• Eligible Grantees: state education agencies, school districts, colleges and universities, and other public and private nonprofit entities. 

Postsecondary Projects 

• Project Areas: hire and train faculty, establish and improve degree programs, improve teacher preparation programs, develop and improve curricula, upgrade technology and telecommunications, acquire science laboratory equipment, provide student support, implement university partnerships with school districts, and establish research and training centers. 
• Eligible Grantees: usually colleges and universities but may include other public and private nonprofit organizations. 

Additionally, the committee will be collecting requests for the Department of Labor related to the Employment and Training Administration. All Department of Labor projects must provide direct services to individuals to enhance employment opportunities and demonstrate evidence of a linkage with the state or local workforce investment system. 

If you have a project that might be eligible under these guidelines, please reach out to your elected officials in the House and Senate to inquire about their request process. Note that these offices will need a project description of less than 1,000 characters, a budget breakdown of the requested funds, and an explanation of why the project is a good use of taxpayer funds. If you need any assistance with CPF requests or do not know how to get in touch with your representatives, please email Zach Curtis, Manager of Government Relations (zcurtis@acteonline.org) and Alisha Hyslop, Senior Director of Public Policy (ahyslop@acteonline.org).  

On March 28, the Biden Administration released the president’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget request. The request, which serves as a blueprint for Congress to appropriate federal funds, included a disappointing $25 million cut to the Perkins Basic State Grant compared to FY 2022 levels. That said, it is important to note that this budget request was created without taking funding levels from FY 2022 (in which Perkins received a $45 million increase) into account. Department of Education officials have stated that they will work with Congress to ensure that cuts are not made to any education programs, however, this merely means they will only advocate for level funding. The plan also proposes $200 million for a new Career-Connected High Schools Initiative that would issue competitive grants to approximately 32 programs to support early enrollment in postsecondary and career-connected coursework, work-based learning, and career-connected instruction.

ACTE and Advance CTE have issued a joint statement urging Congress to go beyond the president’s request by significantly increasing funding for CTE and will continue advocating for bolder investments.

Overall, the Department of Education would receive a 17% increase in this proposal from the FY 2022 enacted level. The main themes, as described by agency officials, include combating the effects of COVID-19 on K-12 students, addressing achievement and opportunity gaps for underserved populations, investing in the educator workforce, improving college affordability, and creating more pathways into postsecondary education. Across all federal agencies, the proposal did give several programs noteworthy increases, including:

Secondary Education

• 17% increase for Every Student Succeeds Act Title I state grants to local education agencies
• 123% increase for Teacher Quality Partnership grants
• 22% increase for students with disabilities
• 20% increase for magnet school programs
• $1 billion for grants to increase access to school-based mental health professionals

Postsecondary Education & Workforce

• 29% increase for Apprenticeship Expansion Grants
• 7% increase for Adult Education, including:
  • $15 million for college bridge programs for low-skilled adults
  • $10 million for disconnected youth
• $1,775 increase to the maximum Pell grant award

Early Childhood Education & Childcare

• 18% increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant
• 5% increase for Head Start
• 5% increase for Preschool Development Grants
• $40 million for institutions providing affordable childcare for low-income student parents

While significant, the president’s budget request only represents a starting point in what will be months of negotiation in Congress. Democrats will be highly motivated to pass an FY23 budget before the end of the year, especially should they lose control over either the House of Representatives or the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. They will need at least 10 Senate Republicans to vote in favor of the final bill.

The recently signed fiscal year (FY) 2022 omnibus appropriations bill marked the first spending bill in a decade to include earmarks. Earmarks, also known has “community project funding” or “congressionally directed spending,” are used by Members of Congress to guarantee funding for specific projects or grantees that would benefit their state or district.

Each Member office submits project funding requests from constituents, which must then be reviewed by the appropriations subcommittees. For FY 2022, members of the House could submit a maximum of 10 earmark requests to be reviewed while members of the Senate had no request limit, and the total funding for earmarks could not exceed 1% of overall discretionary funding. In the coming days, ACTE will publish a blog post on steps our members can take during the earmarking process for FY 2023.

The FY 2022 omnibus appropriations bill earmarks a total of $2.3 million for vocational rehabilitation projects, $140 million for K-12 projects, $249 million for higher education projects and $137 million for employment and training projects. ACTE analyzed this funding and found that 119 earmarks provided over $107 million for CTE-related projects in FY 2022:

• Elementary and secondary CTE-related projects received $16.2 million through 22 earmarks
• Postsecondary CTE-related projects received $49.8 million through 49 earmarks
• Employment and training CTE-related projects received $41.4 million through 48 earmarks

Of the 39 states that received earmarked funding for CTE-related projects in FY 2022, Virginia was allocated the most funding, totaling $8.97 million, and California had the most earmarks with 11 different projects funded. Specific CTE-related projects that received the most funding include:

• $5.1 million for Northern Virginia Community College’s Data Center Operations degree and certificate program.
• $4.5 million for an apprenticeship initiative at Marshall University in West Virginia.
• $3.7 million for Skills for Rhode Island’s Future, a work-based learning program.

Readers can use this spreadsheet created by ACTE to learn more about which CTE-related projects in their state received FY 2022 earmarked funding.

Last week in Washington, the House was out of session, while the Senate remained in town to conduct Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Both chambers will return this week. There is expected to be action on the America COMPETES Act, which contains legislative language similar to the College Transparency Act (CTA) and the JOBS Act, two of ACTE’s top legislative priorities. Stay tuned to the CTE Policy Watch blog for potential advocacy opportunities in the coming days! You can read more about the America COMPETES Act and its implications for CTE below. ACTE is also awaiting the release of President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget, which is expected to be released on March 28. ACTE will continue to work with its partners on Capitol Hill and within the Biden Administration to advocate for more robust federal investments in CTE, so stay tuned for more updates over the coming weeks! As we await more congressional action, here are a few key notes from the week:

• Senate Votes to Proceed on America COMPETES Act/USICA: The Senate is set to vote on Monday on a motion to proceed on the House-passed America COMPETES Act, also known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) in the Senate’s version of the legislation. The bill is aimed to support economic competitiveness with China, U.S. supply chains and semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to ACTE Public Policy’s advocacy work on the bill, National Skills Coalition is circulating a letter to national, state and local organizations in support of the amendment introduced by Reps. Andy Levin (D-MI) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) containing the CTA and JOBS Act language. If your organization would like to sign-on, please contact us. Read more about the America COMPETES Act/USICA here.

• FCC Opens Third Filing Window for Emergency Connectivity Fund: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it will open a third application filing window for the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) program to award at least $1 billion in remaining ECF support and address outstanding demand for devices and broadband connections. The third application filing window will open on Thursday, April 28, 2022, and close on Friday, May 13, 2022.  During this filing window, applicants will be able to submit ECF requests for funding to purchase eligible equipment and up to 12 months of service between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023, for students, school staff and library patrons with unmet needs.

• Department of Labor Announces Funding to Support Employment Readiness for American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians: The Department of Labor has announced $71 million in funding to provide training and employment assistance to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. The grants will support services to equip individuals in these communities with education, job search assistance and occupational skills training to improve their access to better jobs and increased wages. The grants will be administered by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Indian and Native American programs. Learn more about the grant and apply here.

• Department of Education and NASA Host Conversation on Title IX and STEM: On March 24, the Department of Education and NASA held a conversation on elevating the role of Title IX in involving girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. Watch the recording of the event here.

CTE in the High School Transcript Study: Recently, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released results from the 2019 High School Transcript Study. Researchers examined a nationally representative sample of 2019 high school graduates and the courses they took, how many credits they earned, their GPAs and their performance on NAEP Grade 12 assessments. The following are key findings relevant to CTE:

• In 2019, graduates earned 3.3 CTE credits compared to 3.8 credits in 1990. The biggest declines in CTE credits earned were among Black and female graduates.
• Graduates had higher average GPAs in CTE courses (3.33) than in 1990 (2.87). Female and Asian/Pacific Islander students had the highest CTE GPAs, and Black students had the lowest.
• Of the 28% of graduates who took a dual enrollment course, about 13% were enrolled in CTE dual enrollment courses, the highest percentage among all types of dual enrollment courses.
• Since 1990, the percentage of graduates earning at least one CTE credit increased the most in fields such as health science, IT, and hospitality and tourism. In contrast, fields like business and marketing, architecture and construction, and manufacturing faced the largest declines.

Career Readiness Benchmarks: In 2021, MajorClarity released a career & college readiness (CCR) benchmark self-assessment tool for K-12 leaders to score their districts on five key areas of CCR: postsecondary options, data, supports, stakeholder engagement and resources. MajorClarity analyzed responses from over 140 self-assessments in a recent report. Overall, the median score on the benchmark was 68.5%, with the highest average score in postsecondary options and the lowest in stakeholder engagement.

Postsecondary Completion Rates: This winter, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released its tenth report in the Completing College Series, tracking postsecondary enrollment and six-year completion outcomes. The following are key findings from the cohort that began postsecondary education in fall 2015:

• The completion rate reached 62.2%, an increase of over one percentage point compared to the fall 2014 cohort, with the largest increases (+1.5 percentage points) among public community colleges.
• Completion rates increased for two-thirds of states (32 out of 46) examined, and in 26 states, completion rates grew by at least one percentage point for students who started at community colleges.
• Among all racial/ethnic groups, Black students experienced the largest increases in completion rates (+1.9 percentage points) and had the greatest growth in students enrolling in community college (+1.6 percentage points).
• Completion rates for adult learners increased by 2.5 percentage points compared to traditional college-age students, whose completion rates declined. For adult learners who started at community colleges, their completion rate increased by 2.3 percentage points for a total rate of 37.9%.

Employment and Earnings Outcomes: Recently, the American Enterprise Institute compiled a collection of 9 reports that address the history, arguments and data resources regarding postsecondary outcomes and earnings. The featured reports include those of New America, the Higher Education Advisory Group and the Urban Institute and discuss the effect that accountability policies, college advising programs, intermediaries and student demographics have on earnings and employment outcomes. Read the full collection here.

Last week, action in Congress was relatively limited after President Biden signed a Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 appropriations package early last week. With FY 2022 appropriations now complete, Congress now turns its focus to the FY 2023 appropriations process. The first step is the release of the president’s budget, which is now expected to arrive on Monday, March 28. ACTE will continue to work with its partners on Capitol Hill and within the Biden Administration to advocate for more robust federal investments in CTE, so stay tuned for more updates over the coming weeks! Only the Senate will be in session next week, as House members are back in their districts for a district work period. Our focus at ACTE will be on the National Policy Seminar! As we await more congressional action, here are a few notes:

• ACTE Publishes New “CTE Works!” Fact Sheet: ACTE published a new “CTE Works!” fact sheet that provides an evidence-based overview of CTE’s impact on student achievement, education and employment outcomes, and the skills gap and economy. We encourage CTE supporters to share this fact sheet with students and families; federal, state and local education and workforce leaders; policymakers; and the media to convey the value of CTE. It can be used along with our “What is CTE?” infographic that introduces people new to CTE to its scope and benefits. A Spanish-language translation of this new fact sheet will be coming soon!

• President Biden Signs Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations Bill: On March 15, President Biden signed the omnibus bill to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2022, providing over $1.5 trillion across the entire federal government. Overall investments in education were lower than what the President had originally proposed, but the Perkins Basic State Grant was given a much needed $45 million increase! While this represents a steady increase in CTE funding since 2017, ACTE will advocate for larger investments in the FY 2023 budget. Read more about FY 2022 appropriations here.

• President Nominates Nasser Paydar as Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education: On March 18, President Biden announced his intent to nominate Dr. Nasser Paydar, Chancellor Emeritus of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Executive Vice President Emeritus of Indiana University (IU) as the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education. You can read more about Dr. Paydar’s qualifications here.

• Northern Virginia Community College Visit: If you are attending NPS or located in the northern Virginia area, you can participate in a school tour of Northern Virginia Community College on Wednesday afternoon, March 23^rd, from 1:30pm – 3:30pm. Be sure to check out ACTE’s NPS website for the latest information on the school visit and the RSVP!