ACTE is seeking feedback from CTE educators on how the Administration’s recent actions are impacting you and your students or have the potential to impact you and your students in the future. 

On June 30, the Department of Education (ED) announced that it was withholding approximately $7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2025 formula grant funding to states that was due to be distributed on July 1, affecting adult education, professional development, afterschool initiatives and other programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  

In addition, court documents disclosed recently revealed that ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) dismissed more than 3,400 complaints from March 11 to June 27, a significant increase over prior years. This follows OCR layoffs earlier this year at ED and the closure of seven of 12 civil rights enforcement offices nationwide.  

On July 11, ED issued a notice of interpretation on using federal funds to serve undocumented immigrants. The notice interprets many postsecondary education programs, including programs and activities funded by Perkins V, as providing federal public benefits under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and thereby subject to citizenship verification requirements under that law. 

On July 14, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the U.S. Department of Education to proceed with a reduction in force of approximately 1,400 employees. The Court’s decision also enables ED and the Department of Labor to execute a previously signed interagency agreement, which had been held up as part of litigation, that will move the administration of Perkins and WIOA Title II adult education and literacy programs to DOL.

ACTE wants to hear from you about the potential impacts of these actions. If these or other recent federal activities have affected your work, or have the potential to do so, please fill out this short form. We also encourage you to contact ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Jimmy Koch, with questions or experiences you’d like to share. 

On July 10, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced plans to issue a new Notice of Interpretation related to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The new interpretation was published in the Federal Register on July 11, and changes which federal programs are classified as providing “federal public benefits” and are thus subject to citizenship verification requirements under that law.  

The notice is in response to the President’s February 19, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14218, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.” It reiterates existing legal requirements regarding the availability of “public benefits” for U.S. citizens and non-exempted nonresidents and advances a new legal interpretation that many postsecondary education programs, including postsecondary programs or activities funded by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V), fall under the purview of the PRWORA. At this time, it does not appear that K-12 programs are impacted. 

Due to this new interpretation, the Trump Administration issued a formal notice to leaders in the education and workforce communities reiterating grantees’ responsibility to ensure “public benefits” are not provided to undocumented immigrants.

Unlike some federal programs, Perkins V funds are not provided directly to individuals, so the administrative burden of determining whether funding is “used to support programs and services that serve illegal aliens” could be quite complex. We are actively analyzing the notice, and will provide more guidance as it becomes available. In the meantime, we encourage you to review the linked documents carefully and consult with your legal counsel with any questions.

After months of negotiations and revisions, President Trump signed the final reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, over the July 4th weekend. The final bill included several significant provisions for education. This series will take a closer look at several of these provisions, starting with the expansion of Pell Grant eligibility for short-term training programs, a long-standing priority for ACTE.

Under the new law, students will be able to use Pell Grants for programs between eight and 15 weeks, covering 150 to 599 clock hours of instruction. This is a major shift aimed at making workforce training more affordable and accessible for students who need to quickly upskill or reskill. The total amount of funding available to students through these “Workforce Pell” grants will be prorated based on the number of clock hours, credits or weeks of instruction.

To be eligible for short-term Pell, a program must align with high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors or occupations and must lead to a recognized postsecondary credential, in most cases that is stackable and portable across more than one employer. The program must also provide credit toward a related certificate or degree program, and have been offered for at least one year prior to becoming Pell eligible.

Several quantitative requirements are also included for eligibility, including that the program must have a completion rate of at least 70% within 150% of the normal time to completion,  have a job placement rate of at east 70% measured 180 days after completion, and have costs that do not exceed the median value-added earnings of graduates (determined by comparing median wages after three years and 150% of the federal poverty line). Both the Governor of a state and the Department of Education will play a role in approving programs for short-term Pell.

The final version of Short-Term Pell is narrower than earlier drafts. The original proposal would have extended eligibility to unaccredited programs, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled that this provision violated reconciliation rules. Lawmakers ultimately removed that language to ensure the bill’s compliance.  Non-credit programs are not specifically excluded from the bill, but  the Department of Education will have to decide whether they can demonstrate the necessary equivalency to qualify for funding.

Implementation of Workforce Pell is slated for July 1, 2026, aligning with the 2026–2027 academic year. ACTE will provide more guidance in the coming months to ensure a smooth rollout for our members as the implementation begins.

ACTE will continue to post about the various provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this more in-depth, please contact ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Jimmy Koch (jkoch@acteonline.org).

Bridging the Middle-skills Gap: A report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) examines the gaps between high-paying jobs that require postsecondary credentials such as certificates and associate degrees, categorized in the literature as high-paying middle-skills jobs, and the projected size of the middle-skills workforce. CEW further defines high-paying middle-skills jobs as ones where early-career workers have annual earnings above $55,000 and mid-career workers have median annual earnings of $83,300.

The researchers analyzed national education and workforce data and made several findings: 

• Annually, the nation faces a shortage of nearly 712,000 certificates and associate degrees aligned with high-paying middle-skills jobs in four occupational groups: skilled trades, management, STEM and protective services. These shortages are expected to persist until at least 2032. 
• Health care is the only occupational group not projected to face shortages of certificates and associate degrees aligned with high-paying middle-skills jobs. 
• Men, Asian and white individuals are more likely to earn high-paying middle-skills credentials compared to women, Black and Hispanic individuals. In addition, white men hold more high-paying middle-skills jobs in the skilled trades, management, STEM and protective services occupational groups, while white women hold more of these jobs in the health care group. 

Examining the NAF Academy: An article by Edward C. Fletcher Jr., In Heok Lee, Tong Xing Tan and Gen Li in Innovative Higher Education studied the college matriculation rates of students who attended a National Academy Foundation (NAF) career academy.  

The researchers analyzed data from the 2019 graduates of over 400 NAF academies nationwide and found that NAF academy students who engaged in some combination of NAF course completion, internships and/or dual enrollment were significantly more likely to matriculate into college compared to NAF academy students who did not participate in those activities. Male, white and Asian NAF students were more likely to matriculate into college than other racial/ethnic groups, and students enrolled in engineering or finance-focused academies were more likely to matriculate into college than students in hospitality-focused academies.  

The researchers also examined the levels of stress in communities surrounding the academies (stress related to economic, education, health, housing and crime-related issues) and found that students who matriculated into college attended academies in communities with lower stress levels than students who did not matriculate into college. 

Making Career Readiness Count: A report from Advance CTE and the College in High School Alliance examines how states have developed and implemented career-focused indicators in their state and federal accountability systems.  

The analysis found that, as of 2024, 43 states include at least one career-focused indicator in their state or federal accountability system. This represents a slight increase from 2019 and a substantial increase from 2014. Indicators that states utilize the most are dual enrollment success (32), industry-recognized credential attainment (26), achievement on an academic career readiness assessment (21), CTE completion (21) and experiential/work-based learning (16). Of the 43 states that use a career-focused indicator, 35 publicly report college and career readiness data but only 13 disaggregate that data for each indicator in their accountability systems.  

Postsecondary Persistence and Retention: The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released new data on the rates of persistence (i.e., remaining enrolled at any institution) and retention (i.e., remaining enrolled at their starting institution) for beginning postsecondary students, tracking persistence and retention in the students’ first spring and second fall in college. Major takeaways from the data include: 

• Among students who entered postsecondary education in fall 2023, the national persistence rate for fall 2024 was 77.6% and the national retention rate was 69.5%. These represent slight increases compared to the fall 2022 cohort. 
• While public and private four-year institutions saw increased persistence and retention rates for both first spring and second fall, community colleges held steady for first spring but saw small declines in second fall. 
• Trades-related certificate programs, such as precision production and construction, made up four of the top five certificate programs with the highest second fall persistence rates.  
• Part-time students fell far behind full-time students for both persistence and retention. 
• Younger students (aged 20 or below) were more likely to persist and be retained than older students.  
• Hispanic, Black and Native American students have retention rates lower than the national average and have mixed persistence rates.  

Almost all attention in Congress this week was focused on the budget reconciliation bill, which was passed by the Senate on July 1 and then sent back to the House for final passage. After a very long vote, the House passed the bill 218-214 on July 3 and the President signed it into law on July 4. While most of the debate was focused on Medicaid and tax changes, the final bill includes a number of provisions impacting postsecondary education, including student loan changes, new accountability indicators for colleges, and an expansion of short-term Pell. There are also new school-voucher provisions on the K-12 side. We’ll have full analysis of each of these areas over the next week. The House will now be in recess for a week due to the extended session. In other news this week:

• Department of Education (ED) Withholds Approximately $7 Billion from States: On July 1, ED was scheduled to release FY 2025 formula grant funding to states. However, despite statutory requirements related to this funding, grants were not released for adult education and several programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act, totaling almost $7 billion to states. While Perkins funds were released, many schools use the withheld funds to support CTE teachers and students as well. The Committee for Education Funding, of which ACTE is a member, sent a letter to Congress urging them to weigh in to ensure funds are distributed.
• ED Restores Access to Some COVID Funds: The Department of Education sent a letter to states and issued a new FAQ document announcing that they were returning to the original COVID-related funding extension process. This now allows extensions of some COVID-related Education Stabilization Fund spending in all states to create uniformity in how states were treated considering ongoing litigation.
• Department of Labor (DOL) Awards Apprenticeship State Grants: On June 30, DOL awarded approximately $84 million in grants to all 50 states to expand Registered Apprenticeships. This funding was from the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula and you can view how much each state received at the link above.
• ED Wraps Up Negotiated Rulemaking Session: From June 30-July 2, the ED held a session discussing potential changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The panel discussed changes to the definition of a qualifying employer. While no consensus was reached, the discussions will be used to inform draft regulatory changes that will be published in the federal register for public comment.
• Private Sector Orgs Sign White House Pledge to Invest in AI: On June 30, the White House released a list of almost 70 organizations and companies that have signed a pledge to “provide resources that foster early interest in AI technology, promote AI literacy and proficiency, and enable comprehensive AI training for educators.” The pledge supports the Administration’s priority to establish public-private partnerships in this space.

This week, the Senate passed its budget reconciliation bill in a 50-50 vote. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY) joined all Senate Democrats in opposing the bill. Vice President J.D. Vance served as the tie-breaking vote.

This vote came after an intensive review from the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. The Senate Parliamentarian reviews every provision to ensure it complies with the Byrd Rule, which is named after former Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). The Byrd Rule is designed to keep unrelated measures out of budget reconciliation bills. Under this rule, provisions can be removed if they don’t directly impact federal spending or revenue, if their budgetary effect is considered “merely incidental,” or if they increase the deficit beyond the timeframe set by the budget resolution.

During this review, the parliamentarian initially ruled that the provisions on workforce Pell and private school vouchers did violate the Byrd Rule. In response, the Senate Republicans slimmed down these provisions to ensure that they were compliant with the Byrd Rule.

Initially, the parliamentarian ruled that the expansion of Pell Grant access violated the Byrd Rule because of the provision that gave access to unaccredited programs. Lawmakers reinserted the section and removed the ability for unaccredited programs to be eligible for Pell Grants.

Additionally, the parliamentarian ruled that the provision creating a $5,000 tax for K-12 private school vouchers violated the Byrd Rule. The revised bill language limits the credit to states that currently authorize Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO) and makes a few other changes.

The bill now moves back to the House where lawmakers will either vote on the Senate bill, amend the bill and send it back to the Senate, or move to a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the two chambers.

ACTE will continue to monitor the progress of the budget reconciliation process and provide regular updates to our membership. If you have any questions, please contact ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Jimmy Koch (jkoch@acteonline.org).

This week, Congress continued work on the budget reconciliation package following the Senate Parliamentarian’s rulings on several relevant provisions. Meanwhile, several Trump Administration nominees for the Department of Education (ED) and Department of Labor (DOL) were advanced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Keep reading for details! 

• Senate HELP Committee Advances Education and Labor Nominees: The Senate HELP Committee voted this week to advance eight Trump Administration nominees at ED and DOL and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  This includes Penny Schwinn, who has been nominated to serve as Deputy Secretary of Education. 

• Parliamentarian Rules on Key Education Provisions: This week, the Senate Parliamentarian made several rulings on education provisions lawmakers are hoping to include in the final reconciliation package, including provisions for the expansion of Pell Grant access for short-term job training programs. This is a very fluid situation as the bill moves forward.  

• Supreme Court Upholds Universal Funding Mechanism in Federal Communication Commission (FCC) v. Consumers’ Research: In a decision on the FCC v Consumers’ Research case, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the constitutionality of the Universal Service Funding Mechanism. This ensures the continued operation of the E-Rate program, which provides support for broadband access and Wi-Fi connectivity in schools.  

• Senate Appropriations Committee Holds Hearing on President’s Rescission Request: The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the President’s Rescission Request, which would rescind $9.4 billion in enacted funding in FY 2025. While most of the funding in the current recission package is related to foreign aid and public broadcasting, this has the potential to set a precedent for the recission of other funding.