On Thursday, lawmakers averted a partial government shutdown after both the House and Senate cleared a two-step continuing resolution (CR) to allow final FY 2024 appropriations work to wrap up in the coming weeks. The CR moves the funding deadlines from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22.  

The vote will set up a first tranche of six full-year spending bills that the House is expected to vote on next Wednesday. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that legislative text for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development will be released over the weekend.  

Reports state that the second batch of bills, which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill, will be considered by the March 22 deadline, although no details about this bill have been released.  

Included in the CR was a provision that makes changes to the FAFSA Simplification Act. Lawmakers are describing the change as a technical fix to the way the Department of Education calculates the amount of financial aid a dependent student qualifies for each year. It also adds $7.7 billion to support Pell Grants over four years. Without this technical correction, the Pell grant program would have faced a significant shortfall for fiscal year (FY) 2025 because more dependent students would be receiving larger Pell grants that Congress intended when it most recently updated the formula for calculating financial aid eligibility.  

As the appropriations process wraps up in the coming weeks, ACTE will keep you informed on the funding levels for the Department of Education and continue to advocate for the highest level of Perkins funding possible! 

On February 27, ACTE partnered with the Cardozo Education Campus to host the annual 2024 CTE Month School Visit to highlight the incredible programming, students, teachers and faculty at Cardozo. Cardozo is also home to ACTE’s CTE Teacher of the Year, Mr. Aris Pangilinan, known as “Mr. P.” 

The event began with opening remarks by ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Curry, followed by remarks from Cardozo Principal Arthur Mola, Senior Deputy Chief of SEAD Strategy at D.C. Public Schools Glenn Starnes and Cardozo CTE Director Cheryl Rodgers. Mr. P followed these remarks with an inspiring speech, detailing how he grew into his role as a CTE teacher and the incredible experiences he offers to his students. 

A student panel took center stage following Mr. P’s remarks, moderated by and featuring several CTE students pursing pathways in engineering, computer science and similar fields. Students on the panel had hopes of pursuing careers in neuroscience, diplomacy, cybersecurity and more. These students spoke about the impact that CTE has had on their education and their career prospects, giving examples of how CTE has strengthened their employability skills, confidence and networking abilities. They also shared some of the incredible opportunities CTE has opened for them, including internships. Most notably, the students discussed policy changes they need to see in how Congress and local leaders approach CTE. The overwhelming consensus was a push for more funding. Students explained how an increase in funding would help to ensure they all had access to laptops and other learning materials for home use, proper preparation for internships both on behalf of the students and organizations hosting the internships, and more programming that could send students abroad to expand their scope of understanding. 

After the student panel, ambassadors from Mr. P’s class guided guests through several stations in his classroom, sharing work students have accomplished in robotics competitions, programs such as the Rotary Club that open doors for students looking to help local and global communities, and examples of past students who have gone on to exciting careers and postsecondary opportunities.  

Lastly, guests were guided to visit two additional classrooms that were part of the school’s Engineering and IT programs. Guests had the chance to listen to Mr. Richards and Ms. Monsey’s lessons and see their classrooms and equipment. Groups were accompanied by student escorts who shared their experiences and gave insight into the structure and pathways that Cardozo has to offer. 

ACTE is grateful for the enthusiasm and collaboration with Cardozo Education Campus in hosting this insightful event in celebration of CTE Month. Specifically, ACTE extends a warm thank-you to CTE Director Cheryl Rodgers, Mr. Aris Pangilinan and Dr. William Blake from Cardozo, Crystal Smith and Iris Wilson from DCPS, the wonderful guests from the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, or “OCTAE”, our guests from partner organizations and the generous sponsor for this event, the National Association of Homebuilders. 

ACTE has published CTE: Developing the Biosciences Workforce, the latest in our revamped series of Sector Sheets describing CTE’s role in growing the workforce for vital industry sectors. The Sector Sheet series is published with support from ACTE’s long-time partner Pearson.

These revised Sector Sheets include job opportunities in each sector and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring more streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective.

This Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports the biosciences workforce, which employs over 2.1 million people nationwide across more than 127,000 business establishments. It also shares information on occupations, earnings and credentials that enable individuals to succeed in the laboratories, medical equipment and devices, and pharmaceutical manufacturing sub-sectors. Finally, the Sector Sheet demonstrates the importance of CTE in developing this workforce by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more.

As we move forward with the revamped Sector Sheets, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will remain available on the ACTE Sector Sheet webpage for download and use. We encourage you to share these tools with students, families, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for learners and the workforce.

Alternative Credentials Models: The Online & Professional Education Association in partnership with Wal-Mart recently published a report that examined the landscape of alternative credentials with an analysis of the programmatic and industry partnership models that are necessary to support and sustain them. The authors of the study noted that postsecondary institutions are increasingly opening up to alternative delivery models and credentials such as non-credit certificates, professional certificates, badges, bootcamps, massive open online courses (MOOCs) and more.

The following list includes key insights from the publication’s postsecondary administrator survey:

• 94% of respondents said that their institutions offer alternative credentials.
• 84% of institutions reported offering non-credit certificates, 82% offer professional certificates, 80% offer badges, 45% offer bootcamps and 26% offer MOOCs.
• 67% of institutions reported offering stackable credentials.
• Institutions use multiple models to finance alternative credentials: 75% of institutions reported using fee-based business models, 65% use revenue share, 57% use a self-funded entrepreneurial model and 54% use an employer-funded model.
• 71% of respondents reporting co-creating curriculum through employer engagement or partnership.
• Only 55% of institutions have a consistent process for the development of new alternative credentials.

Researchers also recommended including alternative credentials as a strategic priority within institutional plans, bringing in employers and corporate partners to contribute during the program development process, and avoiding “one size fits all” solutions.

Inequity in Degree Attainment: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has published a report on recent trends and insights concerning degree attainment, value and inequity. Researchers ascertained that although postsecondary degree attainment increased by 6.7 percentage points from 2010 to 2020, gaps across racial and ethnic groups remained significant.

More statistics and insights below:

• Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw the most gains in the number of adults with an associate degree or higher.
• Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino adults experienced a nationwide degree attainment increase of 11% and 15% respectively, with Texas and Minnesota among the leading states showing gains.
• 26% of white adults hold a bachelor’s degree, 10 percentage points higher than Black/African Americans, 12 points higher than Hispanics/Latinos and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and 15 points higher than American Indian/Alaska Natives.

Researchers recommended strategies such as increasing access to career counseling, investing in high-quality credential programs, expanding financial aid for low-income students and rooting out occupational segregation as key actions that leaders can implement to combat attainment and access gaps across the board.

Federal Pandemic Relief Funding at Community Colleges: A report recently published by the Community College Research Center examined how money from the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund was distributed across community colleges, the extent to which these institutions spent their funds and the variation of allotment that occurred by institutional and student characteristics. Researchers analyzed over 900 colleges and found that nearly half (484) were total spenders, disbursing around 100% of their funds.

More findings and insights below:

• Lower spenders served higher numbers of underrepresented and Pell grant students than total spenders (43% vs. 35%).
• Per-student HEER awards averaged $9,179 for lower spenders and $5,044 for total spenders.
• States with larger community college enrollments like California, Florida and Texas received the highest amount of funds.
• Postsecondary institutions were awarded funds within a range of $306,000 to $25.3 million, depending on student enrollment numbers.

This week, Congress was fairly quiet as the House and Senate are both in recess. They will return next week. The Senate will be back in session on Monday (2/26) and the House will reconvene on Wednesday (2/28). Both chambers will have a brief period to pass government funding for the appropriations bills set to expire on Friday (3/01) and the remaining appropriations bills set to expire the following week on March 8. Unfortunately there is yet to be any public release of those bills, and few specific updates. Administration activity continues though, and you can read more below:  

• Department of Labor (DOL) Announces $200M Available in Grants to Expand Registered Apprenticeships: The DOL announced almost $200 million in apprenticeship grants available under the Apprenticeship Building America funding opportunities and the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grants funding. More information can be found on the CTE Policy Watch Blog.
   
• DOL Announces $20M to Deliver Information Technology Skills, Training, Job Services to Youth: The DOL announced $20 million in available funds to provide information technology training and related employment services to students in the WIOA-authorized Job Corps Information Technology Academy. The deadline to apply for these funds is April 9, 2024.
   
• Biden-Harris Administration Releases State-by-State Breakdown of $1.2 Billion in SAVE Plan Forgiveness This week, the Biden-Harris Administration published a state-by-state breakdown of borrowers receiving $1.2 billion in forgiveness under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which started processing on Friday.
   
• Rep. Foxx Weighs in on Draft Apprenticeship Regulations: House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent a letter to the DOL Acting Secretary requesting that the comment period on new draft apprenticeship rules be extended, particularly so employers have more time to comment. .
   
• Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Releases New Resources on Students with Disabilities: The OCR released four new resources for students, parents and families and schools to share information about students with disabilities’ legal rights regarding discrimination.
   
• DOL to Hose Online Seminar for Agriculture Industry Employers, Workers and Other Stakeholders: The DOL plans to host a webinar on March 28 regarding federal requirements governing agricultural employment for growers, farmers, shippers, contractors, farm labor contractors, buyers and agricultural workers nationwide. Wages, housing, transportation, field sanitation, farm labor contractor certification and other topics will be discussed. Registration is open now. 

On February 22, the U.S. Department of Labor announced almost $200 million in grants to support the public-private relationships crucial to Registered Apprenticeships. The new funding available includes $95 million in grants for the second round of the Apprenticeship Building America Grant Program, and another $100 million in the second round of State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula Grants.  

The funding opportunities available in the Apprenticeship Building America grant program are intended to strengthen the Registered Apprenticeship system by supporting partnerships that will uplift many industries and individuals, and promote Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) to translate strong training into good jobs, strengthening the workforce. 

Eligible applicants for the Apprenticeship Building America, Round 2 grants include county governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status or higher or city or township governments. Grants will range from $1 million to $8 million. 

There is funding for three categories of grants: 

1. Ensuring Equitable RAP Pathways and Partnerships Through Pre-apprenticeship Leading to RAP Enrollment  

1. Creation of Education System-aligned Pre-apprenticeship and RAPs 

1. Registered Apprenticeship Hubs 

Applications close on April 15. To apply and learn more, access the Grants page here: https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/352219  

The funding opportunities available in the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula, Round 2 (SAEF2) grant program is designed to continue modernizing and strengthening the National Apprenticeship System while accommodating states looking to expand new opportunities. 

Base funding is awarded to all States that apply, with a separate opportunity to apply for additional funding for States looking to expand on innovation. Eligible applicants include state governments, and grants will be awarded up to $6 million.  

Applications will close on April 4. To apply and learn more, access the Grants page here: 

https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/351688  

This week, the Senate started a two-week recess after finally passing their foreign aid supplemental spending bill. The House remained in session for a few days, where it voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, before starting its own recess. Both chambers will return the week of February 26. The most pressing matter related to CTE is the completion of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations process. Unfortunately, there has been no public update on the specifics of those negotiations, and the March 1 and 8 deadlines that would trigger a government shutdown are on the horizon. While that work continues behind the scenes, CTE Month activities on the Hill have continued, along with a number of other developments:

• State Policies Impacting CTE: 2023 Year in Review: ACTE and Advance CTE published an annual report analyzing state policy trends that will impact millions of students, teachers and families across the nation.
• Career and Technical Education: A Path to Success for Many: CTE Caucus Co-chairs Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) penned an opinion piece on student success within CTE programs to celebrate CTE Month. They also appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this week to discuss CTE, and introduced the Counseling for Career Choice Act to support more access for students to career information, which ACTE endorsed.
• ACTE Endorses Bill to Support Early Childhood Education Pathways: On Feb. 14, R Annie Kuster (D-NH), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Bonamici introduced the Early Childhood Workforce Advancement Act, which would support CTE programs of study to prepare students for early childhood education careers.
• Department of Education Releases Updates to Equity Action Plan: This week, the Department released its 2023 Update to its Equity Action Plan, which focuses on ensuring every student has equitable access to an academically rigorous, well-rounded education in a safe and inclusive school. One of the priorities in this plan is “Advancing equity in and through CTE.”
• Biden-Harris Administration Holds First-Ever Interagency Youth Policy Summit – Cultivating Possibilities: The Biden-Harris Administration hosted nearly 90 young Americans at the Department of Education for an interagency summit. The goal was to provide a space for young people to share directly with federal agencies their ideas for policy improvement and programs to ensure they succeed.
• Department of Labor to Host 2024 Construction Ready Career Expo: Experts from the Department of Labor plan to welcome thousands of students to Atlanta to learn about careers in construction and related fields, focusing on workplace safety.
• Key Funding Sources for Educator Registered Apprenticeships (ERA): Over thirty states now have launched ERA programs. There are many ways these programs can access funding grants. New America compiled a list of several funding sources for these programs.