Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), longtime CTE advocate, is currently circulating an important “Dear Colleague” letter addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The letter requests robust funding for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. Committee members view these letters as a critical part of the process because they show the breadth of support for a specific program. Now more than ever, it’s imperative the letter amasses strong backing in the Senate to show support for Perkins funding and CTE at the federal level.

CLICK HERE to ask your Senators to sign the letter and support strong CTE funding in the FY 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill!

Building Robust District Work-Based Learning Data Collection Systems: A recently published report by the CTE Research Network showcases the promising practices of six school districts across the nation that have gone well beyond the minimum for work-based learning (WBL) data collection and use.

Recommendations on how school leaders can improve WBL data collection below:

• Begin data collection as early as possible by creating records of learner career interests and activities.
• Systematically capture learner skill gains so they can be assessed as an outcome measure through tagging predefined sets of skills or using a structured employer evaluation form.
• Track student career interests and WBL participation through individual learning plan databases.
• Minimize data collection errors by implementing formal systems that restrict entries to first-hand sources such as teachers, students, employers and school-level WBL coordinators.
• Prioritize data quality and integration across systems.

Researchers also emphasized the need for longitudinal data systems that link education and employment records.

ACTE is one of the lead organizations in the CTE Research Network.

Geographic Variation in Equitable Postsecondary Value Among Community Colleges: The American Institutes for Research has released a report that quantifies the value that postsecondary institutions provide to students by using publicly available data to measure learners’ earnings against the Postsecondary Value Commission’s Postsecondary Value Framework. Experts determined that community colleges hold a positive value for students from the 2008-09 and 2009-10 beginning cohort with a median economic return of $2,800 compared to people whose highest attainment is a high school diploma. In particular, pathways that result in employment within health care and manufacturing were associated with increased economic value for students.

Understanding Dual Enrollment: The Community College Research Center recently published a policy fact sheet on dual enrollment (DE) summarizing what we know from the research. Researchers noted that 82% of high school students nationwide report attending a school that offers DE courses.

Top-level findings, insights and recommendations below:

• Unequal access to DE is prominent with White students participating in these courses at twice the rate of their Black and Hispanic classmates. Individuals with disabilities and English learners are also significantly underrepresented.
• Over 1.5 million learners annually enroll in DE courses nationwide with more than a million of those individuals taking them through two-year institutions. In fact, secondary students account for approximately 20% of community college enrollments.
• Standardized placement tests are the main method for determining eligibility, although researchers question their validity and whether they perpetuate inequities.
• The most frequent model for DE delivery is college-level coursework taught at the high school. Students who take courses on a college campus are less likely to pass the DE course but more likely to enroll in community college after high school.­
• Traditional DE models are less costly overall than Early College High School (ECHS) models despite ECHSs being designed to offer programing at low or no cost to learners.

On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Social Security held a hearing to discuss the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). Originally developed in order to ensure that workers having non-covered pensions did not receive higher social security benefits provided to long-time, low-wage earners, this provision has had negative effects on workers who originally did pay into social security and then switched over to a public pension fund in approximately 15 states. This directly impacts workers who become teachers after a career in the private sector – like many CTE teachers, as well as other public service workers. H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, has been introduced to repeal WEP and GPO.

During the hearing, lawmakers shared their ideas on several initiatives to help simplify social security, to generate more money for the fund, and to ensure truly fair treatment amongst workers who are and are not covered by social security. Witnesses were divided on whether the repeal of WEP and GPO would solve the countless problems with the current provision, which, as noted by several lawmakers and witnesses, is reflective not of the current workforce but of the intent of lawmakers 40 years ago.

Jason Fichtner, Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center explained to lawmakers that both WEP and GPO are overly complicated, and that the unfairness is derived in part from the provision itself, and in part from the over-complexity that makes communication with beneficiaries extremely difficult.

Witnesses and lawmakers debated whether the solution is to amend or overhaul the current provisions. Some argued that eliminating WEP and GPO would result in more inequity for the impacted communities, noting that it was created to address an issue that will be left with no solution if the provisions are discarded. Others believe that the solution is to get rid of these provisions and instead work to impose taxes on higher-income individuals to make up for any money lost and provide benefits to lower-income individuals and those with marginalized identities, including women and People of Color.

Despite these differences, lawmakers unilaterally agreed that action needs to be taken. Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ) argued that, “What’s most depressing is that over two million Americans who paid their dues have suffered – police officers, retired first responders, firefighters, teachers – they have seen a reduction in social security benefits.” Representative Estes (R-KS) later agreed, sharing with the committee that, “Every instance of WEP and GPO negatively impacting a teacher, police officer or public servant is troubling. Simply because of the profession they choose, they are bearing the brunt of a policy’s negative, unintended consequences.”

Last week, Congress returned from recess and kicked things off with education hearings to discuss FAFSA and the President’s budget request. There was also some movement within House leadership as Rep. Cole assumed his position as the new Appropriations Committee Chair. Administration activities continued, keep reading for more details! 

• House Passes WIOA Reauthorization: On Tuesday, the House, in a 378-26 vote, overwhelmingly passed H.R. 6655, A Stronger Workforce for America Act. This bill would reauthorize the Workforce, Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).  
• Congress Holds Hearings on FAFSA, President's FY 2025 Request: The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a hearing on the President’s budget proposal and heard testimony from Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona. Meanwhile, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing to discuss challenges with the Department of Education’s new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which was released in December of 2023. Read more on the CTE Policy Watch Blog. 
• Rep. Tom Cole Elected as House Appropriations Committee Chair: House Republicans elected Rep. Cole to chair the House Appropriations Committee for the rest of this Congress. Rep. Cole will also be promoting the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee clerk, Susan Ross, to be staff director. This will be interesting to follow as FY 2025 Appropriations are underway.  
• Department of Education Publishes Additional Gainful Employment Information: A new “Topics Page” and FAQs are now available on new financial value transparency and gainful employment regulations that are scheduled to go into effect this summer for all postsecondary certificate programs.  
• NIST Awards $3.6 Million for Community-Based Cybersecurity Workforce Development: The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded cooperative agreements totaling nearly $3.6 million aimed at building the workforce needed to safeguard enterprises from cybersecurity risks. 
• Department of Labor Announces $6M in Grants to Retain Women in Registered Apprenticeships: The U.S. Department of Labor announced a funding opportunity of $6 million for up to 17 grants to attract and keep women in Registered Apprenticeship programs and industries where they are underrepresented, including manufacturing, construction and cybersecurity. The deadline to apply is June 10.  
• Secretary Xavier Becerra Tours Healthcare Career Pathway Programs: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Rio Americano High School to learn about career and technical education medical pathways and facilities. 
• Department of Labor Awards Community College Grants: This week, DOL announced the 16 winners of the latest round of Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants. The grants are designed to help colleges prepare students for jobs and meet local workforce needs.  

Congress is back from their two-week recess and held two education-centric hearings this week. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a hearing on the President’s budget proposal and heard testimony from Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona. Meanwhile, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing to discuss the challenges students, families and financial aid officers are experiencing with the rollout of the Department of Education’s new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which was released in December of 2023. 

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s hearing reviewed the difficulties that students and financial aid offices are struggling with related to the new FAFSA as college admissions deadlines approach. There have been challenges both with the form submission and processing, leaving many colleges without the information they need to issue financial aid offers. Lower rates of FAFSA submission (about 40% down from the previous year) have led to concerns about postsecondary attendance in the Fall.  

Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson, co-chair of the House CTE Caucus, asked witnesses about the root cause of certain difficulties the platform has faced and expressed concern about students whose aid would be potentially limited or eliminated by overall changes to the FAFSA. Witnesses noted it was too soon to tell how formula changes were impacting students because of the other issues with the process 

 Lawmakers also raised the issue of student debt, debating whether recent efforts focused on relieving student loan debt might be drawing resources away from solving FAFSA obstacles. These concerns were echoed in the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Committee’s Hearing on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request. Secretary Cardona discussed the aforementioned concerns by reassuring lawmakers that no other project was redirecting resources from FAFSA, and that it remains a top priority for the department.  

Secretary Cardona also discussed some areas in the budget that the Department of Education is working on, including but not limited to their Raise the Bar Initiative, academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the accessibility and affordability of various career and college pathways to ensure students have more opportunities for rewarding careers. Other concerns that members surfaced in this hearing included  absenteeism and the availability of support services for students, including mental health support and assistance for food insecurity. 

Secretary Cardona will continue discussing these issues with lawmakers in the coming months, likely testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee as well, while Congress works on their budget for FY 2025. The President’s FY 2025 Budget Proposal was released earlier this year, and ACTE’s analysis of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill is posted on our blog. We will continue to share updates and important information pertaining to this process, and advocate for robust funding for CTE at the federal level. 

On Tuesday, the House, in a 378-26 vote, overwhelmingly passed H.R. 6655, A Stronger Workforce for America Act. This bill would reauthorize the Workforce, Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).  

Specifically, this bill requires that 50% of the adult and dislocated worker funding go toward upskilling workers through individual training accounts (ITAs), streamlines the eligible training provider list requirements to focus on outcomes and ensure eligible programs are aligned with the skill and hiring demands of employers, establishes a demonstration authority to provide several states and local workforce boards the flexibility to reimagine their workforce system, and facilitates skills-based hiring by validating workers’ competencies gained through prior experience and authorizing state and local boards to provide technical assistance to employers on implementing skills-based hiring practices. However, ACTE did have some concerns with the bill, notably the lack of mandatory inclusion of CTE leaders on workforce boards and lack of specific dedicated funding for the one-stop system.  

The ball is now in the Senate’s court, and lawmakers there are currently working on their own bipartisan legislation with the stated goal of a bill passing out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee by Memorial Day.  

The Senate is expected to craft its own legislation, though there may be many similarities between the two bills. Final enactment of a WIOA reauthorization bill this year will depend on the Senate acting, and the degree to which the Senate and House bills differ. It will be challenging for the chambers and parties to come to an agreement in an election year.  

ACTE recently participated in a briefing for Senate staff on the links between WIOA and CTE programs where we answered questions and outlined our WIOA priories. ACTE will continue to work with Senators on a WIOA proposal that builds more meaningful connections between CTE and workforce systems. 

The co-chairs of the House CTE Caucus, Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), are circulating an important “Dear Colleague” letter addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The letter requests robust funding for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. It is critical that the letter garners strong backing in the House to show support for Perkins funding in this year’s challenging federal fiscal climate. The deadline for sign-ons is April 17, 2024!

CLICK HERE to ask your Representative to sign the letter and support strong CTE funding in the FY 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill! 

Note: Senators will have a similar letter opportunity soon, but this one is just for House members!