The following recently published research makes the case for the benefits of CTE to students, workers and regional economies.

Students Want Technical Training: More students are considering community and technical colleges and programs, according to a survey of 500-plus U.S. high school sophomores, juniors and seniors conducted by the College Savings Foundation. This includes 28 percent looking to enroll in community colleges and 8 percent aiming to participate in postsecondary vocational/career programs—up from 20 percent and 4 percent, respectively, in 2016.

In addition, 81 percent of students would like colleges to focus more on skills training than on majors that lead to employment further down the road, and 70 percent say they would rather attend such an institution.

Data on CTE Postsecondary Students: Thirty-eight percent of college students in 2011-12 were seeking an associate degree or postsecondary certificate in a CTE field of study, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Health care was the most popular CTE program, followed by business and marketing. Subbaccalaureate CTE students most often attended public two-year colleges—65 percent—with 20 percent enrolled in for-profit institutions.

Skills Gap for Technicians: Equipment distributors are struggling to cope with a skills gap, according to this one-pager from the Associated Equipment Distributors. To address the problem, the infographic recommends incentivizing CTE programs at high school and postsecondary levels.

Building the Southern Workforce: More than half of all jobs in the Southern United States require some college education, such as an associate degree or postsecondary certificate, but less than a bachelor’s degree, according to a National Skills Coalition report. The publication describes how CTE and career pathways can improve the skilled workforce in the South.

Certificate Holders Reap Rewards: Postsecondary certificates bring rewards to Oregonians, according to an analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Young certificate holders can double their earnings after completion. Mid-career workers also benefit, although their trajectory is a bit bumpier: They typically experience a decline in earnings while pursing a certificate, but make a recovery after earning their credential. Students earning certificates in health care fields typically see the largest wage gains.

ED Online Resource Library: The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new, online Comprehensive Center Network, pulling together resources from the department’s centers focused on specific education initiatives, such as the College and Career Readiness and Success Center, and from its regional centers. The network includes more than 700 resources and more than 200 projects.

State Guide to Non-degree Credentials: A new guide from the Workforce Data Quality Campaign includes step-by-step instructions for states on measuring non-degree credential attainment using student-level administrative data.

This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to advance the chamber’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill. The Senate bill proposes to maintain current levels of funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant at $1.192 billion and CTE National Programs at $7.4 million. The Senate measure significantly differs from the FY 2019 education funding bill that is currently being considered by the House, which proposes to increase the Perkins Basic State Grant by $102 million above the current level—bringing the total to nearly $1.3 billion. As we reported in April, 38 Senators signed a letter requesting $1.3 billion for Perkins state grants in FY 2019. It is an important time to let your Senators know that you want to see this much-needed increase in Perkins funding. Please take a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress through our CTE Action Center.

On June 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved its long-awaited draft bill to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. The new bill does not have a number yet, but is titled the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. The bipartisan bill was approved unanimously by voice vote, and will now move forward in the legislative process to the full Senate.

While the Senate bill does use the House Perkins reauthorization bill, H.R. 2353, passed last year, as its base, there are significant changes, particularly to accountability provisions, in the bill. ACTE has been working with the Committee to ensure that these changes align with our Perkins reauthorization priorities, and will continue these conversations as the process moves forward. You can read our joint statement with Advance CTE on the markup here, and the letter we sent to the Committee outlining more specific thoughts on the bill here. We will have a full summary available soon.

In addition, the Committee also considered the nomination of Scott Stump to be Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, Department of Education. By voice vote, the Committee favorably reported the nomination to the full Senate, where it must be considered before Mr. Stump is officially confirmed. ACTE strongly supports this nomination and looks forward to the completion of the nomination process and working with Mr. Stump as OCTAE’s new Assistant Secretary.

This week, the House Appropriations Committee provided additional details on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 education funding bill. The bill proposes to increase funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant by $102 million above the current level—bringing the total to nearly $1.3 billion. ACTE recently called on Congress to increase the state grant program to $1.3 billion in FY 2019. If enacted into law, this much-needed investment in Perkins will help to restore a decade of declining federal support for CTE. Additionally, Perkins National Programs would be increased by approximately $13 million in the House bill. These additional National Programs funds would be earmarked for a new grant competition that would focus on supporting CTE in STEM fields. The measure was approved by the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations subcommittee earlier this month. The full committee was scheduled to take up the bill this week, but that markup hearing was postponed and will likely not take place until July. 

The House bill proposes to fund the Department of Education overall at $71 billion—an increase of $43 million over the current year funding level. The ESSA Title IV Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, which can be used to support secondary school career exploration activities and college and career guidance programs, would see an increase of $100 million. However, ESSA Title II funds to support effective educators, as well as Title I grants for low-income students would both be frozen at current levels. The bill recommends maintaining the Pell Grant maximum award at $6,095. The three state formula grants under Title I of WIOA would be frozen at current levels, as would the adult education grant program. The bill would provide an additional $5 million in funding, for a total of $150 million, to support apprenticeship opportunities. 

Additionally, the Senate will unveil its education funding bill this week, so it’s important to keep the positive momentum in Perkins funding going forward. Please take a few minutes to join this effort by contacting your Members of Congress using our CTE Action Center!

On Thursday, the Trump Administration announced a proposal for a massive overhaul of executive agencies, one it billed as the largest since President Roosevelt's "New Deal" in the 1930s. The plan would include merging the Departments of Education and Labor into a new Department of Education and the Workforce (DEW). In doing so, the proposal claims to streamline federal workforce development programs, reducing the number of programs by more than 60 percent.

According to the plan, DEW would be organized into four sub-agencies: K-12; American Workforce and Higher Education Administration (AWHEA); Enforcement; and Research, Evaluation, and Administration. CTE would fall squarely within AWHEA, even though it clearly encompasses K-12 as well. Within AWHEA, there would be various "components" that would each be led by an official appointed by the president. Two of these components are "Adult Workforce Development" and "Youth Workforce Development." According to the document, the Adult Workforce Development component would focus on consolidating funding programs to serve adult populations, and the Youth Workforce Development component would include both in- and out-of-school assistance for students and "create stronger pathways to postsecondary paths and employment." Additionally, AWHEA would include a federally-administered "Apprenticeship and Impact Fund."

Thus far, reaction from policymakers has been mixed, primarily along party lines. Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce has expressed optimism about the proposal, while Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) has thrown cold water on it. Similarly, while Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee was more reserved than his House counterpart, he too expressed a willingness to explore the plan. Conversely, HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) called it "unrealistic, unhelpful, and futile."

The proposal still lacks many details. For instance, Perkins is not mentioned in the document. ACTE is reserving final judgment until more details emerge and we are able to comprehensively evaluate the proposal. However, we remain skeptical that the CTE community would benefit from a proposal that isolates CTE from K-12 considering how many learners participate in secondary CTE. Additionally, having an undersecretary solely devoted to CTE, as is the case with the current Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) within the Department of Education, is important given the unique role CTE plays across secondary and postsecondary education, and the workforce development system. We will continue to monitor developments, and continue to post updates to the CTE Policy Watch Blog. It is important to note that these changes would have to be approved by Congress, which already has a very full schedule leading up to the mid-term elections.

The flowchart below, which comes from the report, illustrates the organization of the new department. The full plan can be found here.

Bipartisan negotiations have been moving at a quicker pace over the last few weeks as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hoped to finally move forward on its Perkins reauthorization bill. Last week, Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) formally announced committee consideration of a yet-to-be-released Perkins reauthorization bill for this Wednesday, June 20. He had also committed to moving a bill forward even if partisan agreement was not reached on a proposal.

However, on Monday, the Committee announced that the Executive Session to mark up the bill would be postponed due to conflicts with the Senate schedule. Negotiations continue, and are making progress, but legislation has yet to be released. We’ve included the full statement by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) below:

“We have announced an Executive Session for June 20 for a series of important bills and nominations. Our goal is bipartisan agreement on the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, and we are making significant progress toward that goal. Because Sen. Alexander will be managing the Energy and Water Appropriations bill on the Senate floor next week, we have agreed to postpone the June 20 Executive Session to Tuesday, June 26 or Wednesday, June 27 at a time to be determined.”

The Committee was also scheduled to consider the nomination of Scott Stump to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Career, Technical and Adult Education during the Executive Session, so this vote (as well as votes on a few other bills and nominations) will need to be rescheduled as well.

ACTE joined with Advance CTE to issue a statement supporting the continued bipartisan negotiations and careful consideration of Perkins. We hope to have a final date and time for the markup and draft legislation to share soon, and will let you know if action is needed!

Earlier today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee announced it will hold an Executive Session to consider legislation and nominations on Wednesday, June 20, at 10:30 am. In what could be very good news, a bill to reauthorize the Perkins Act is included on the list of business for the Executive Session! In addition, the nomination of Scott Stump to be the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education is scheduled to be considered as well.

At this time, no legislative text has been finalized for the markup, but negotiations continue. In a statement published in Education Week, Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said, "Senator Enzi, R-Wyo., and Senator Casey, D-Pa., have been making good progress, and I hope the bill the committee considers next week is bipartisan.” Last week, Sen. Alexander said he would bring the bill up before the Committee whether there was a bipartisan agreement or not, implying that he could move a partisan, Republican-only bill if no agreement is reached. 

We continue to encourage Members of Congress to work together to produce a Senate bill that aligns with our priorities to move the field forward, and that can ultimately gain enough support to be signed into law. We will release more information as soon as it becomes available!

UPDATE: Politico is reporting that the Senate Perkins markup has been delayed to Tuesday, June 26, or Wednesday, June 27, as lawmakers continue to work on crafting a bipartisan bill.