As Members of Congress returned to Washington this week, their focus was on the FY 24 appropriations process and the reauthorization of the National Defense Authorization Act. For CTE stakeholders, the biggest news was the House’s appropriations subcommittee markup of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill, which proposed significant cuts to education and workforce development programs. As we await the next phase of the appropriations process, here are some more news and notes:

• House Subcommittee Appropriators Approve FY24 Education Funding Bill: Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill, including funding for education and workforce development programs. The bill was approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies earlier today on a party-line vote. Unfortunately, because House leaders chose to develop appropriations bills at a much lower funding level than agreed to in the debt limit deal, this bill makes significant cuts across education and workforce programs. Learn more about the bill here.

• Department of Education Makes Corrections to Income-Driven Repayment Plan Balances: On July 14, the Department of Education issued federal student loan balance discharges to borrowers whose balances qualified for forgiveness upon correction of their count of payments made through income-driven federal loan repayment plans. Learn more about the discharges here.

• Senate CTE Caucus Co-chairs Introduce Data for American Jobs Act: On July 13, Senate CTE Caucus co-chairs Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Todd Young (R-IN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced 2290, the Data for American Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill to ensure that CTE is included in federal data systems to help improve career readiness programs, meet the needs of the economy and expand the skilled workforce. ACTE has endorsed this legislation, and you can view the accompanying press release with a quote from ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Curry here.

• Senate Committee to Consider Supporting Small Business Career and Technical Education Act: On July 19, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will consider 936, the Supporting Small Business Career and Technical Education Act as part of the committee’s pending legislative business. ACTE has endorsed this legislation.

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill, including funding for education and workforce development programs. The bill was approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies earlier today on a party-line vote. Unfortunately, because House leaders chose to develop appropriations bills at a much lower funding level than agreed to in the debt limit deal, this bill makes significant cuts across education and workforce programs. There are approximately 60 programs completely eliminated and another 50 programs with proposed reductions. Overall, the bill reduces funding 29% below the FY 2023 enacted level, and also includes recissions to prior funding.

In a small victory for CTE, the legislation “maintains career and technical training grants,” suggesting that the Perkins Basic State Grant should be level funded at FY 2023 levels.

However, while we appreciate the legislation’s recognition of sustaining current levels of federal investment in CTE via Perkins, we are extremely concerned about proposed cuts to other major education and workforce development programs elsewhere in the legislation. You can view our statement about the bill here.

Below are just a few of the funding cuts included in the bill that are most relevant:

Education Cuts/Eliminations

• 80% cut for Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title I state grants to local education agencies
  • Note: Rescinds $8.7 billion of advance funding for Title I grants to states that would become available in Fall 2023 and could be used for the upcoming program year
• Eliminates funding for Magnet School program
• Eliminates funding for Teacher Quality Partnerships
• Eliminates funding for Federal Work-study Program
• Eliminates funding for ESSA Title II – Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants

Department of Labor Cuts/Eliminations

• Eliminates funding for Department of Labor WIOA Youth and cuts Adult training programs
• Eliminates funding for the Women’s Bureau
• Eliminates funding for Job Corps program
• Cuts Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by $95 million

The bill now advances to consideration by the full House Appropriations Committee. We are still awaiting the date of the full committee markup, and we will continue to provide updates as the bill moves along in the appropriations process. Be on the lookout for an Action Alert next week to get involved and let Congress know that these massive cuts will have a negative impact on the broader education and workforce system, including CTE programs. You can view the full text of the bill here.

Connecting Education and Workforce Data: The Institute for College Access and Success recently published a report analyzing the importance of linked education and workforce data. The report examined Kentucky and Tennessee’s integration of education and workforce data sets to identify best practices and lessons learned. It notes the importance of the Kentucky Center for Statistics, which facilitates the integration of Kentucky’s education and workforce data and shares its findings with agencies within the state to respond to specific and relevant research questions that can inform policy. Similarly, Tennessee links education and workforce data in a system that receives contributions from a variety of partners and assists many agencies in their policy process. This system provides answers to policy questions in a centralized manner, and the state plans to expand access in the future. 

The report highlights the importance of integrating education and workforce data and the need for adequate federal funding through the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program to bring these centralized, integrated data systems to every state. The newly introduced Data for American Jobs Act in the Senate, supported by ACTE, aims to better support state longitudinal data systems and build stronger connections between education and workforce data, including CTE.

Linking Postsecondary Education to Jobs: Harvard University’s The Project on Workforce explores the ways in which postsecondary education connects to job outcomes. The initiative recently released a College-to-Jobs Map that visually illustrates the connection between regional workforce trends and availability of college graduates. The tool’s College Graduate Data map looks at graduate demographics, fields of study and degree attainment against the backdrop of regional growth rates in number of college graduates, including an economic mobility rate for different communities. The Labor Market Data map compares college graduate supply to worker demand for various occupations. Both tools can be filtered by a number of variables.

A companion report describes educational interventions that postsecondary institutions can implement to assist students in accessing quality, good-paying jobs. These include career coaching, experiential learning, industry-recognized credentials, apprenticeships and other programs that orient students towards success in the workforce. Studying the existing research and current implementation of these interventions, the report found that colleges and the job market needed further alignment and that interventions were often not equitably accessible to all students. 

Implementing a Student-level Data Network: A recent report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy explores design options for a future national student-level data network (SLDN) that incorporates data from postsecondary institutions and federal agencies to provide greater insights into postsecondary student outcomes. Teams of experts developed plans for hypothetical SLDNs to identify potential benefits and anticipate problems around student identifiers, data storage, revising submitted data and adding new data elements.

The teams all emphasized the importance of a network that would decrease the burden on institutions through the use of state systems that collect and report data on behalf of institutions. As a result, institutions would only need to report data to one place, and the burden on the federal data collection help desk would be reduced as it would now interact directly with states. In addition, the panelists agreed that institutions should have access to their own data within an SLDN to analyze it for internal use.

This week in Washington was another quiet week for federal policy with the Independence Day holiday. Congress is out of town until July 10, when they will return to continue work on fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills and other key legislation. Neither the House nor the Senate Appropriations Committee has released a draft of its Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies funding bill, and there is no clear timing on projected markups of these bills, so advocacy continues to be critical. Here are some additional notes as we await Congress’s return from recess:

• Perkins Plan Submissions and Revisions for FY 2024: The Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) has released guidelines for states to receive FY 2024 Perkins grant awards through submission of new or revised Perkins state plans and/or updated state-determined performance levels (SDPLs). Submissions will be due by COB on May 10, 2024. Read the full memo here.

• Analysis of National Data Illustrates CTE Teacher Shortages: ACTE recently analyzed the National Center for Education Statistics 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS)for relevant CTE teacher data such as demographics, distribution, vacancies, and salaries and credentials, among other topics. Learn more from the survey here.

• President Biden Announces New Actions on Student Loans: In the wake of the Supreme Court decision blocking President Biden’s proposal to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for most Americans, the administration announced new stepsto aid borrowers. Learn more about these new actions here.

• Committee for Education Funding Sends Letter on FY 2024 Appropriations: On July 6, ACTE’s coalition partner, the Committee for Education Funding (CEF), sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as leadership of the Labor, HHS and Education subcommittees, opposing the significant cuts planned for FY 2024 appropriations bills.

• Department of Labor Launches Youth Employment Works: The Department of Labor has launched the Youth Employment Works strategy to center young people at the heart of the workforce development conversation. The strategy will focus on efforts that can offer seamless access to supportive services and workforce development opportunities for youth and young workers, increase public and private commitments to youth and young adult career pathways, philanthropy across all sectors to invest in high-quality pathways for young people, and offer guaranteed paid work experiences. Learn more about the strategy here.

• Additional Funding for Broadband Internet Announced: The Department of Commerce has announced funding for each state and U.S. territory and the District of Columbia for high-speed internet infrastructure deployment through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) initiative created under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision blocking President Biden’s proposal to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for most Americans, the administration announced new steps to aid borrowers.  

The Department of Education is starting the negotiated rulemaking process, where they will bring in various parties that would be affected by regulatory changes. The parties will discuss Title IV financial aid programs. Afterwards, the department will draft a rule that could allow them to forgive loans through a different policy mechanism. The department also announced the creation of a 12 month on-ramp transition period for borrowers. During this period, borrowers will resume payments and interest will accrue, but borrowers will not be penalized for missing late or missing payments. Student loan payments are set to resume on October 1.  

Additionally, the Department of Education finalized the new income-driven repayment plan. The plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, will cut monthly payments to zero dollars for low-income borrowers, save all other borrowers at least $1,000 per year and curb interest rate accrual. Borrowers will be able to begin enrolling in the SAVE plan later this summer, and the department will automatically switch borrowers currently enrolled in the existing RAPYE plan to SAVE at that time. The department says that borrowers who apply for one of those plans “this summer” will have their applications “processed in time” for their first payment due dates that begin in October.  

ACTE recently analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) for relevant CTE teacher data such as demographics,  distribution, vacancies, salaries and credentials, among other topics.

Vacancies

One of the most interesting findings is that almost one-third of public schools that reported CTE teacher vacancies in 2020-21 found those vacancies very difficult to fill or were not able to fill them. Relatedly, 28 states and territories reported CTE teacher shortages to the U.S. Department of Education in 2023-24.

Distribution

The data shows the highest percentages of public CTE instructors in business management, family and consumer sciences, and agriculture and natural resources. However, more than 10% of CTE teachers are captured in the “other CTE” category, indicating a mismatch between the taxonomy of CTE program areas in the NTPS and how programs are categorized in the field. Additionally, most public CTE teachers are located in rural and suburban locales – 33.3% and 30.6%, respectively – while towns have the lowest percentage of CTE teachers.

Demographics

Across CTE program areas, women comprise 55% of teachers while men make up 45%, with major variations across career fields. Black teachers make up 7.9% of public CTE teachers, compared to 6.1% across all public teachers, and 6.8% of CTE teachers are Hispanic, compared to 9.5% overall. Most concerningly for CTE advocates, CTE teachers are older than the public teacher workforce in general: 12.7% of CTE teachers are 60 years of age or older, compared to 7.9% overall.

Salary

The majority of public CTE teachers work full time, and in 2020-21, they earned an average base salary of $59,806 annually – less than other subject areas. However, public CTE teachers are more likely than teachers overall to receive additional compensation for extracurricular activities and for student performance.

Background and Credentials

About 38% of public CTE instructors entered teaching through an alternative certification program, a much higher rate than overall instructors (19.4%), with only natural sciences teachers close at 30.2%. Before going into teaching, 65.5% of public CTE teachers worked in the private sector. In addition, CTE teachers are more likely to have an associate degree or less – 10.9% compared to less than 1% overall – and are less likely to hold a regular or standard teaching certificate – 80.5% compared to 89.8% overall.

Morale and Influence

Last but certainly not least, how do CTE teachers feel about the profession? Public CTE teachers report similar levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction as teachers overall. Around 37% of public CTE teachers somewhat or strongly agree that they would leave teaching immediately if they could get a higher-paying job – about the same as all teachers (37.8%). On a positive note, 30.7% of all public school CTE teachers say they have a great deal of influence on curriculum – more than most other subject areas.

To learn more about this data, check out tables from the NTPS or perform your own data analysis with PowerStats.

This week in Washington was a quiet week for federal policy, with Congress in recess for the Independence Day holiday until July 10. The biggest news this week was focused on Supreme Court rulings, several of which will impact higher education admissions and federal student loan forgiveness. When Congress returns, they will continue work on the FY 2024 appropriations process, but no dates have been announced for markups of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies bill in either chamber. Here are a few additional news items from this week:

• Department of Labor Welcomes Nominations for National Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship: The Department of Labor has announced that it is seeking nominations for members to serve on the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship for the 2023-2025 term. Authorized by the National Apprenticeship Act, the committee advises the Secretary of Labor on ways to expand, modernize and diversify Registered Apprenticeship programs and provide equitable access for all workers to participate and succeed in the national apprenticeship system. Read more about the nomination process here.

• Department of Labor Awards Grants to Help Homeless Veterans Re-enter Workforce: The Department of Labor has announced over $58 million in grants awarded to support the efforts of organizations that help homeless veterans by enabling them to overcome barriers to re-entering the workforce and finding meaningful employment. Read more about the grants here.

• Department of Labor Awards Grants Provide Pre- and Post-Release Services for Re-entry Population: The Department of Labor has announced the award of grants to 17 organizations in 15 states to provide training, employment and supportive services to adults re-entering the workforce following incarceration in a local jail or state correctional facility. Learn more about the grants here.

• Department of Education Launches Application Process to Expand Pell Grant Access for Confined or Incarcerated Individuals: The Department of Education has launched a new process through which institutions of higher education can apply to offer postsecondary programs to confined or incarcerated individuals. The Department will begin accepting applications on July 3, 2023, and will approve applications on a rolling basis. Learn more about the process here.