Earlier this week, House leaders announced that instead of allocating the amount of funding agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 for FY 2024 appropriations bills, which would have essentially provided level funding to domestic programs, they would write appropriations bills to the lower FY 2022 level requested by the most conservative House members.

While we are still awaiting the official topline funding level for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, early reports estimate that the bill could be cut by almost 30%. The impact on Perkins funding and CTE programs could be significant. As the House starts to consider their appropriations bills, we need to generate as much support for CTE as possible to ensure the highest possible level of funding for Perkins within these tight caps.

ACTION NEEDED: CLICK HERE to ask your representative to support robust funding for Perkins CTE in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill!

You can send a message directly using the ACTE Action Center. Additionally, if you have a direct contact in your representative’s office, such as from a meeting with a staff member during NPS earlier this month or at another time, we urge you to call or email directly. You can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and an operator will connect you to your requested House office. Please contact your representative today!

Today ACTE has released CTE: Developing the Construction and Architecture Workforce, the second 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.

The Construction and Architecture Sector Sheet describes occupations, earnings and credentials that can help individuals enter and progress in careers in residential and commercial construction, infrastructure construction, and architecture and engineering. It also shares how CTE prepares learners for construction and architecture careers through courses, education and industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations, and more. The data demonstrates the importance of CTE to developing this workforce, which currently employs around 7.9 million people and needs more than 700,000 new workers annually to fulfill the country’s building needs.

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, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for students and the workforce.

Following last week’s deal to lift the federal debt limit, Congress is beginning to shift focus back to FY 2024 appropriations bills. The House Appropriations Committee is expected to begin markups next week of several appropriations bills that were marked up by subcommittees prior to completion of the debt limit deal, and Senate leaders have announced they hope to start markups later this month. In the meantime, here are a few news and notes:

• Acting Secretary of Labor Testifies to House Education and Workforce Committee: On June 7, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Department of Labor FY 2024 policies and priorities. During the hearing, there was substantial discussion of the opportunities available to support workforce development through registered apprenticeships, secondary and postsecondary CTE programs and more. Read more about the hearing here.

• Appropriations Update: We are still awaiting the topline funding level for the FY 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill following the signing of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 into law last week. The schedules for the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill release and markup in the House have not been announced. There are ongoing discussions between some Republicans and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) about whether to draft appropriations bills at a level that accounts for the spending caps in the debt limit bill or a lower amount.

• Department of Education Raise the Bar/Full-Service Community Schools Grants: The Department of Education has released a Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for the FY 2023 Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) grant program that supports academic acceleration and provides academic and whole child supports to build and strengthen connections between schools, parents, families and their surrounding communities. Learn more about the grant opportunity here.

• Department of Education School Infrastructure Grants: The Department of Education has announced applications for two new competitive grant programs focused on ensuring school facilities provide safe, healthy, sustainable and equitable learning environments: the Supporting America’s Schools Infrastructure (SASI) grant and the National Center on School Infrastructure (NCSI) grant. The former will award approximately $40 million to State Education Agencies (SEAs) and state entities to increase the capacity of the state to support high-need districts and schools in leveraging available federal, state, and local resources to improve school facilities and environments.  The latter will award roughly $2 million to a research agency, institution, or organization to establish a national center that will serve as a clearinghouse of resources and offer technical assistance to SASI grantees and other high-need districts seeking to leverage existing resources to improve facilities. Applications are due August 7. Learn more about the grants here.

• Department of Education Grant Opportunities to Address Educator Recruitment, Retention and Career Advancement: The Department of Education has announced more than $368 million in new grant opportunities through the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program and the Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive program that advance investments in teacher recruitment and retention. These investments particularly prioritize promoting educator diversity and career advancement and leadership opportunities for effective educators tied to increased compensation. Learn more about the grant opportunity here.

On June 7, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Department of Labor FY 2024 policies and priorities. During the hearing, there was substantial discussion of the opportunities available to support workforce development through registered apprenticeships, secondary and postsecondary CTE programs and more.

Acting Secretary Su discussed the workforce needs that will be required to ensure successful implementation of federal investments such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Several members noted the impact of youth apprenticeship programs, including House CTE Caucus co-chair Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), who highlighted several youth apprenticeship programs in her district. Bonamici also called attention to the importance of industry partnerships that link employers with community colleges, particularly in the manufacturing and semiconductor fields.

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) added that telecommunications training programs, such as those at Atlanta JATC Electrical Training Center, are preparing students to become technicians in these in-demand fields.

“It's clear that we need to be doing more to get Americans into these careers so that we can see the full benefit of our bipartisan investments through the infrastructure package and the CHIPS and the Science Act,” said McBath.

Continuing the messages echoed by Reps. Bonamici and McBath, Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) asked how Congress can scale up investments and WIOA training programs, such as career counseling, American Job Centers and other employer programs, to better meet workforce needs, and how the Department and Congress can partner to boost and strengthen community college programs as part of the workforce development pipeline. Acting Secretary Su identified the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants program as one such example.

Su also highlighted the proposed Sectoral Employment through Career Training for Occupational Readiness (SECTOR) program, which would support the development and expansion of partnerships between employers, education and training providers and community-based groups to focus on training the workforce in growing industries.

You can view the full hearing here.

This week in Washington, Congress was focused on final negotiations to complete a deal to raise the federal debt limit before a potential government default. The final bill passed the House on May 31 and the Senate on June 1. After President Biden signs the legislation today, the focus will shift to determining overall spending allocations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills, including the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies spending bill. We have recapped the core parts of the deal in greater depth below, but we will gain a clearer picture of funding levels for education and workforce development programs over the next few weeks. As we await more details, here are some news and notes:

• Deal Reached on Debt Limit: House Republicans and White House negotiators reached a deal last weekend on a legislative package that would suspend the debt ceiling until January 2025, set limits on federal spending in FY 2024 and 2025 for defense and non-defense programs, rescind some unspent COVID relief funding, change some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) rules that would limit eligibility for some, and reallocate some of the Internal Revenue (IRS) funding provided in the Inflation Reduction Act. Learn more about R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, and its impact on CTE and workforce development programs here.

• Nominations Extended for Career Clusters Advisory Groups: Recently, nominations were opened for a set of 15 national advisory groups that will help to provide input into potential changes to the National Career Clusters Framework. The nominations have been extended until June 16. See more from Advance CTE here.

• Meet Rose Schoshinski, ACTE's New Public Policy Intern: Rose Schoshinski recently joined the ACTE team as an intern in the Public Policy Department. Learn more about Rose here.

Condition of Education 2023: The Institute of Education Sciences recently released its Condition of Education 2023 report with an overarching theme that educational institutions are still recovering from the pandemic. Enrollment at the K-12 level remains below pre-pandemic levels. In addition, the report notes that 70% of public schools have seen an increase in students seeking mental health services. To support these needs and address pandemic learning losses, more than 70% of public schools are engaging in student assessment, summer enrichment programs, remedial instruction, and mental health and trauma support. On a positive note, the average high school graduation rate increased from 79% in 2010-11 to 87% in 2019-20.

Teacher vacancies are another challenge facing K-12 education. In 2020-21, 31% of public schools reported having difficulty filling CTE teaching positions in comparison to 20% in 2011-12. Additionally, the number of individuals completing traditional teacher preparation programs decreased by 28% between 2012-13 and 2019-20.

On the postsecondary level, between fall 2010 and fall 2021, undergraduate enrollment at two-year colleges decreased from 7.7 million to 4.7 million students (a 39% drop). The decline was relatively steady across the decade, with a slightly larger decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition:

• Slightly fewer postsecondary certificates were conferred in 2020–21 than in 2010-11.
• In 2020-21, associate degrees were awarded predominantly in liberal arts, humanities and general studies; health professions; and business fields.
• Since 2010-11, the number of associate degrees awarded has decreased the most in homeland security, law enforcement and firefighting fields and engineering technologies.

Recent Developments and New Opportunities for Non-degree Credentialing Research: The George Washington University Non-degree Credentials Research Network recently released a report on developments and opportunities for non-degree credentialing research such as new sources of data, increasing federal interest in credentialing and the skilled technical workforce, and the rise in state-level tools for career navigation. The document highlights initiatives and research that are driving change in the non-degree ecosystem:

• The U.S. Census Bureau’s National Training, Education and Workforce Survey, which launched in the field in 2022. This survey will be longitudinal, enabling researchers to study non-degree credential attainment over the next decade.
• Research from the RAND Corporation found that returns from non-degree credential attainment are concentrated in a higher probability of employment for women and in higher earnings for men.
• Research by the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative and others that is supporting interactive mapping of credential demand by geographical region.
• Data analysis and solutions from Opportunity @ Work and others focused on workers who are STARs: “skilled through alternate routes” other than a bachelor’s degree.

The publication also highlights the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, a crowd-sourced online library that collects, curates and coordinates resources to support the learn-and-work ecosystem. 

Findings from Virginia’s FastForward Programs: This Brookings Institute article examines the rising popularity of noncredit workforce training programs as a solution to the growing skills gap that is preventing employers from filling over 10 million job vacancies, according to May 2023 Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The authors report that noncredit CTE programs account for more than 2.5 million students enrolled in the community college system. However, a barrier to wider implementation of these programs is that researchers know very little about the characteristics of participating students, the rates at which they graduate and earn workforce-relevant credentials, and whether their respective CTE programs truly lead to improved workforce outcomes.

One exception is Virginia’s FastForward initiative, which helps students pay for short-term, non-credit programs that can lead to high-paying jobs in high-demand industries while tracking student data and could serve as a model for a similar nationwide system. Research findings include the following about FastForward programs:

• They attract a higher share of Black students, male students and older students than short-term, for-credit programs at community colleges.
• Most enrollees do not have prior enrollment in credit-bearing programs, and less than 14% have pursued subsequent credit-bearing education.
• Credential attainment rates are high, with 70.1% of students earning an industry credential within six months.

My name is Rose Schoshinski, and this week I joined the ACTE team as an intern in the Public Policy Department. I recently completed my sophomore year at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, as a Government major and Hispanic Studies minor. I am excited to supplement this coursework with this opportunity to work alongside and learn from the respected professionals in the Public Policy Department while advocating for CTE.

In this position, I will assist in conducting research, writing for the CTE Policy Watch Blog, and crafting advocacy materials. Additionally, I will have the opportunity to attend meetings and hearings on Capitol Hill relating to CTE. Through this work I am excited to contribute to advocacy for CTE programs that provide crucial opportunities for many Americans.

Before joining this team, I conducted advocacy work for humane immigration policies. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I co-founded an online platform called “The Voices of Migrants” with the goal of elevating the stories of immigrants as an essential step toward facilitating legislation in support of these communities. Through informational blog posts, webinars, interviews and social media campaigns, the site displays the reality of the migrant experience and the human element that can often be overlooked in policy.

Through this work I saw firsthand the importance of education, but also observed that certain groups do not have equal access to educational opportunities. Additionally, this year I had the opportunity to take a course about the historical and modern role of race and ethnicity in the U.S. school system. In this course, I learned about many shortcomings of our current education system, but it also introduced me to CTE as a current strength of the system. I studied the ways in which CTE develops important skills for students that can generate future success and provide crucial opportunities. Through this I developed a particular interest in education and CTE that draws me to this work.

Given this passion, I am excited to become a part of the ACTE team and begin this critical work. I am grateful to the Public Policy Department and the entire team for welcoming me to the organization and providing me with the opportunity to advocate for CTE. I look forward to working on behalf of our members toward greater access and quality of CTE programs across the United States. Please feel free to contact me at rschoshinski@acteonline.org if I can be a resource to you.