On September 1, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-ED) released and subsequently approved on September 2 its fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations bill. The bill proposes deep cuts to the Department of Education (ED) and other job training programs at the Department of Labor.

Overall, the bill proposes a $23.9 billion or 11% cut to the overall spending levels across all the agencies and cuts ED by approximately $12.1 billion or 15% and $4 billion or 30% to the Department of Labor.

In some positive news for CTE, the bill proposes an increase of $25 million for the Perkins State Grant, which brings the overall funding level to $1.465 billion. The bill would fund the National Activities account at $10 million.

Other programs in the bill would experience significant reductions. Title I grants under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) would be cut by $5.2 billion, a 27% decrease. Federal Work-Study funding would be reduced by 37%, and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) job training grants would see a 63% cut, with the youth funding stream eliminated. Funding for Adult Education programs would be completely eliminated as well.

Meanwhile, funding for the maximum Pell Grant, TRIO, and GEAR Up would remain level with FY 25, as would funding for apprenticeships. \

The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to hold a vote on the bill next week, where amendments may be considered.

The cuts in the House bill stand in contrast to the Senate Labor-HHS-ED appropriations bill that the full Senate Appropriations Committee approved in July. It provided close to level funding to programs across the Board and agencies overall. The Perkins State Grant was also level funded in that bill. Lawmakers in both chambers will need to reach a compromise before government funding expires on September 30. Similar to previous years, it is likely that a continuing resolution (CR) will be needed to avoid a shutdown.

ACTE will continue to provide updates on the appropriations process as they happen. If you have any questions, please contact ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Jimmy Koch (jkoch@acteonline.org).

Both the House and Senate have released their Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 funding bills for the Department of Education (ED). In some good news for CTE, neither bill cuts funding for the Perkins State Grant, and the House bill provides a $25 million increase for CTE. However, there are significant concerns with the House bill overall, and neither bill provides the sustained investment needed for both CTE and the wider education continuum.

On July 31, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-ED) appropriations bill, which included level funding for Perkins State Grants.

On September 1, the House Appropriations Committee released its Labor-HHS-ED bill. It provides a $25 million increase for the Perkins State Grant, bringing the total to $1.465 billion. However, the bill proposes many funding cuts and program eliminations that would significantly impact the broader education and workforce systems in which CTE programs operate, including programs like adult education, WIOA and more.

As lawmakers returns from the August recess and the appropriations process moves forward, it is essential that Congress provides both increased support for CTE and sustained investments to education and workforce programs across the continuum to ensure all learners have the opportunity and resources needed to build skills for lifelong career success.

ACTION NEEDED: CLICK HERE to urge your Members of Congress to support Education and Workforce Development funding in FY 2026! 

Send a message directly using the ACTE Action Center. You can also call or email directly any personal contacts that you have in your Members’ offices, such as from a meeting at NPS, or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and an operator will connect you to your Member of Congress.

Congress is nearing the end of summer recess with the end of August approaching! The House and Senate will return to in-session activities on September 2, focusing on appropriations work in advance of the end of the fiscal year. In the Administration, the Department of Education (ED) issued new regulations for loan forgiveness eligibility under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), took steps to maintain existing CTE reporting requirements, and certified the 2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) launch. Secretary McMahan also spoke on CTE. Keep reading below for more updates from the past two weeks, and stay tuned for more as Congress returns! 

• ED Issues New Rules for Student Loan Forgiveness Under PSLF: ED released a memo with updated regulations on eligibility for loan forgiveness under PSLF. The proposed revision will allow denial of loan forgiveness if the borrower works for an employer “deemed to have a substantial illegal purpose.”  Individuals in CTE-related public service should continue to monitor employer eligibility for PSLF updates. A final rule is expected by November 1. 

• ED Issues Plans to Maintain Existing Perkins Data-reporting Requirements: ED issued the second notice of revised rules that propose to eliminate the expanded reporting requirements authorized in December 2024 by the Biden Administration that would have required states to track additional CTE performance metrics. The new documents would largely revert back to existing requirements, a move ACTE has long supported.  

• Cabinet Meeting Highlights CTE: During President Trump’s August cabinet meeting, Secretary McMahon highlighted multiple states for expanding CTE in middle school career pathways and enhancing high school dual-credit opportunities. Watch the remarks here.  

• ED Confirms 2026-2027 FAFSA Launch: Secretary McMahon certified to Congress that the FAFSA form will be available by October 1, meeting the statutory deadline requirements. ED conducted beta testing this summer with educational institutions and students to ensure successful operations before the form launches. Read more about it here. 

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) Introduce Fusion Workforce Act: Rep. Lofgren and Rep. Obernolte introduced a bill to create a national Fusion Workforce Hub at the National Science Foundation (NSF), which aims to promote CTE in fusion science and technology through curriculum development, career readiness resources, and expanding research opportunities.  

The Front End of the CTE Teacher Pipeline: A working paper from the Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) examines the earnings of CTE teachers who enter the profession with prior industry experience.

After analyzing employment data from Washington state, the researchers found that, on average, CTE teachers with prior industry experience make $13,000 more in their first year of teaching than in their prior industry jobs. Apart from Advanced Manufacturing and Digital Technology, CTE teachers in most Career Clusters experience first-year salary increases. 

When comparing the salaries of traditionally and alternatively certified CTE teachers with prior industry experience, the researchers found that although alternatively certified teachers have higher industry salaries, both groups experience salary increases when they transition to teaching. While traditionally certified CTE teachers across all Clusters experience a first-year salary increase, alternatively certified teachers in the Advanced Manufacturing and Digital Technology Clusters earn more in industry than teaching. 

Career Education Recruitment and Communication Toolbox: A new toolkit from Advance CTE provides practitioners with resources to effectively recruit and support students in CTE programs: 

• A guide on recruiting and supporting students with disabilities in CTE programs, including strategies and case studies.  
• A resource outlining how two pilot programs in Colorado and Louisiana worked to better engage with CTE students to inform their recruitment and communication practices.  
• A guide on conducting focus groups as well as customizable CTE program recruitment templates. 

America’s School-to-work Crisis: A survey conducted by the Schultz Family Foundation and HarrisX examines the education and workforce attitudes of young adults, parents, navigators (e.g. teachers, counselors, workforce specialists) and employers. The researchers surveyed over 5,600 respondents and found the following: 

• Across each group, most respondents indicate that while four-year degrees can lead to a job, other skills and experiences are more important. 
  • Fifty-eight percent of employers say skills are more important than degrees. 
  • While navigators express support for noncollege pathways, 70% still advise young people to pursue a four-year degree. Parents also primarily recommend a four-year degree despite reservations about its value.  
• Sixty-four percent of young adults want hands-on experiences to explore career options before choosing a pathway, and 45% say that current career resources available to them offer little guidance.  
  • Young adults are also engaging with AI: 20% use AI tools to explore education and career possibilities. However, 54% are concerned about whether AI will replace the jobs they seek. 
• Tools that navigators recommend for young adults include goal setting (54%), career assessments (41%), college fairs (37%) and job fairs (36%).  
• Thirty-eight percent of employers offer internships, and 14% offer job shadowing opportunities.  

Updating and Expanding the Workforce Almanac: A recent update to the Workforce Almanac from the Project on Workforce at Harvard University provides new figures on short-term workforce training providers nationwide. As of August 2025, more than 20,000 providers are captured in the Almanac’s data, including federal Registered Apprenticeship providers, higher education institutions and WIOA-eligible providers. The researchers analyzed this data and found the following: 

• Nonprofit providers account for 37% of total providers, followed by WIOA-eligible providers (29%), higher education institutions (18%) and Registered Apprenticeships (16%). 
• The Midwest has the highest number of providers per 100,000 workers and per 100,000 unemployed individuals. 
• Washington, D.C., Wyoming and Alaska have the highest number of providers per 100,000 workers; Nebraska, Texas and South Carolina have the lowest. 
• Puerto Rico, West Virginia and Arkansas have the highest ratio of postsecondary institutions that offer short-term workforce training programs to workers. 
• The most common Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors are union/labor organizations, employers, business associations and community colleges/universities. 

In July, Department of Education (ED) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee to determine the eligibility requirements for Workforce Pell, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. ACTE, in partnership with Advance CTE, submitted comments on August 28 to provide recommendations on the best path forward for the implementation of short-term Pell.

Our recommendations highlight the importance of formally including subbaccalaureate institutions, such as community and technical colleges and area technical centers, within the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee. These institutions will play a central role in program implementation.

Additionally, we recommended that Workforce Pell build on existing state-defined terms and systems developed in Perkins V and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). For example, states define high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand sectors, and many maintain lists of credentials of value. While definitions vary by state, this existing work provides a strong foundation for aligning programs with local labor market needs within local contexts. Flexibility will be important however, as many definitions were designed for longer-term pathways rather than short-term training programs.

Implementation of Workforce Pell should also recognize the need for reliable data on program outcomes. Many states face significant challenges in linking education and workforce data, and only a small number currently use actual wage outcomes to assess credentials of value. Future guidance should acknowledge these challenges, avoid unrealistic reporting requirements and support capacity-building efforts, including through federal data initiatives.

As the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee begins, ACTE will continue to provide updates to help our members best understand the implementation process. If you have any questions, please reach out to ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Jimmy Koch (jkoch@acteonline.org).

On August 5, the Department of Education (ED) launched the “Your AI Horizons Challenge,” the third challenge in the ED’s #CTEMomentum challenge series. The new challenge urges students to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into traditional workplace roles to keep pace with emerging technologies. The annual challenge aims to expand CTE education while also providing career readiness opportunities for students.  

The challenge is a team-based project. Interested high school students should submit a project overview, a 60-second video pitch and a plan explaining their AI workplace proposal. Teams must have a teacher, administrator or coordinator as the official lead.  

Submissions are due on November 19, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST. Ten winners will be announced and will receive a portion of $50,000. 

You can learn more about the challenge here.  

Congress remained mainly focused on summer recess activities this week. Both the House and Senate will return to Washington on September 2 to resume appropriations work as the end of the fiscal year approaches next month. Floor activity was limited to pro forma sessions, but members still introduced legislation in areas including workforce development, small business incentives and education access. In the Administration, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Commerce and Education (ED) published a new workforce strategy earlier this week with plans to advance skills development. See below for more updates from the past week:  

• Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) Introduce Counseling for Career Choice Act: Rep. Thompson and Rep. Bonamici introduced a bill to amend Every Student Succeeds Act, which would allow Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants to expand funding eligibility to career counseling and exploration to expand resource support for CTE programs. ACTE endorsed this legislation.  

• DOL, Commerce, and ED Issue Report on Workforce Development: On August 12, the three agencies jointly released “America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age,” a federal strategy aimed at enhancing the country’s approach to career readiness training. It includes five different focus areas to meet modern day workforce demands. You can read more about it in this blog post.  

• Federal Judge Rules Against ED’s Anti-DEI Requirements: On August 14, a federal judge ruled against ED’s February 14 guidance memo, requiring educational institutions to certify compliance with ED’s interpretation of the anti-discrimination law to receive federal funding, ruling that the ED cannot enforce the restrictions without proper legislation or rulemaking.  

• ACTE and Partners Request Clarity on Serving Undocumented Learners: ACTE, along with Advance CTE, AACC and ACCT, sent a letter to ED seeking answers to critical questions regarding their recent notice of interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) provisions related to benefits for undocumented learners. 

• ED Announces Career Z Challenge Recipients: ED wrapped up the final phase of the Career Z Challenge, recognizing student-centered work-based learning (WBL) in high school programs. Each recipient received a portion of $1.5 million to expand WBL initiatives. Each of the winners showcased strong partnerships, student impact, and sustainability within WBL. The Department of Education recognized the following institutions: Atlanta College and Career Academy (GA), Kirkwood Community College (IA), YouthForce NOLA (LA), Grand Forks Public Schools (ND), Future Focused Education (NM), South Bronx Community Charter High School (NY), Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (OH), Lorain County Joint Vocational School (OH) and Roanoke City Public Schools (VA).  

• Secretary of Education Conducts School Tour: In conjunction with the beginning of the school year, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is kicking off a 50-state tour titled “Returning Education to the States.” The tour has already included stops at several community colleges.  

• Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) Introduce Apprenticeships for Small Businesses Act of 2025: Rep. Harder and Rep. Kiggans introduced a bill to create a refundable tax credit for small businesses that hire CTE students and trainees. Each participating business would be eligible for up to $10,000 in tax credits.