On June 28, the Swiss Embassy in the United States held a reception at the residence of Ambassador of Switzerland Jacques Pitteloud to highlight the Swiss, Austrian and German apprenticeship models, and discuss lessons that can be applied to the U.S. apprenticeship system.

Ambassador Pitteloud welcomed the attendees and introduced representatives of the three countries featuring their apprentices at the panel discussion. Additional welcome remarks were given by Ambassador of Austria Martin Weiss and Ambassador of Germany Emily Haber.

The companies included Buhler Aeroglide of Switzerland and North Carolina, Engel Machinery of Austria and Pennsylvania and Linde + Wiemann of Germany and Georgia. Each of the three companies’ attendees noted that they were drawn to their apprenticeship programs by a desire to obtain debt-free education and hands-on learning opportunities.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo was in attendance and discussed her support for registered apprenticeships, highlighting the ongoing challenges for American global economic competitiveness and emphasizing the availability of jobs in high-demand fields.

The event concluded with remarks from Brent Parton, Acting Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor, on the takeaways from the event.

On March 3, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced legislation that would boost compensation for all public early childhood and K-12 teachers, including those in CTE. The legislation, titled the RAISE Act, would provide refundable federal income tax credits between $1,000 and $15,000 to eligible teachers annually. The amount of the credit would be determined by a sliding scale based on the school poverty level where the teacher works. 

Specifically, the RAISE Act would:   

• Provide all eligible K-12 and early childhood teachers with a minimum $1,000 refundable tax credit, regardless of school poverty level.  
• Provide a refundable tax credit of up to $15,000 for early childhood teachers with a bachelor’s degree and all eligible K-12 teachers. 
• Provide a refundable tax credit of up to $10,000 for early childhood teachers with an associate degree or Child Development Associate (CDA) certificate.  

Additionally, the bill would invest in educator recruitment and retention programs, incentivize local education agencies to increase teacher salaries, provide labor protections to prevent the tax credit from being unfairly used in salary negotiations and increase the educator tax deduction to $500 for all early childhood and K-12 teachers.   

ACTE has officially endorsed the RAISE Act. Now, we need your assistance to help retain teachers in the profession and attract more high-quality professionals to the teacher workforce.  

ACTION NEEDED: Contact your Members of Congress to ask them to cosponsor and support the RAISE Act! 

If you have a direct contact in your Member's office, such as from a meeting with a staff member during NPS 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 congressional office. Please contact your Members of Congress today!

Last week in Washington was a busy week for both Congress and CTE. The focus was on negotiating and passing gun safety legislation, school nutrition program support, subcommittee appropriations bill markups, court security funding and additional January 6 committee hearings. Congress is set to be on recess this week in advance of the July 4 holiday, which means that lawmakers have now missed a self-imposed deadline of July 4 for completing negotiations on the bipartisan, bicameral America COMPETES Act/USICA. As we await new details, here are some key developments:

• Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations Subcommittee Markup: On June 22, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies released the first draft of its fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bill. While a full, detailed funding table has not yet been released, according to the committee’s initial summary, the legislation proposes a $45 million increase to the Perkins Basic State Grant program. Read more about the legislation and markup here.

• Reps. Thompson, Kilmer Introduce Bill to Expand Career Counseling for Adult Learners: On June 23, Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Derek Kilmer (D-WA) introduced legislation to amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to allow for additional career guidance for adult learners through public outreach, including Public Service Announcements (PSAs), social media campaigns, job fairs and other measures to educate the public about workforce development programs. ACTE has endorsed this legislation, and ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson was quoted in the accompanying press release.

• Department of Education Hosts Career Pathways Summit: To promote the Department’s Career Connected High Schools initiative proposed as a part of its Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget request, the Department of Education held a webinar on June 21 to discuss best practices for creating and supporting effective career and college pathways and reaching more learners. Speakers at the event included community college representatives, employers, school districts, workforce boards and community organizations.

• Department of Labor Hosts Good Jobs Summit: On June 21, the Department of Labor (DOL) in collaboration with the Families and Workers Fund held a summit focused on improving job quality and access to good jobs. Speakers represented federal agencies, Congress, state and local government and the workforce. Read more about the event here.

• New Education Funding in Gun Safety Bill: On June 25, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. The legislation contains several new education investments designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of students in addition to gun safety provisions. Read more about the bill here.

• Department of Education Releases Proposed Changes to Title IX Regulations, Seeks Comment: The Department of Education has released for public comment proposed amendments to Title IX regulations, including requiring that all students receive appropriate support, strengthening protections for LGBTQI+ students who face discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and requiring that school procedures for complaints of sex discrimination, including sexual violence and other sex-based harassment, are fairly addressed. Read more from Inside Higher Education and the Department of Education’s press release, where additional information and fact sheets can be found.

• Department of Labor Awards Grants to Provide Job Training and Employment Services to Justice-involved Youth: The Department of Labor has announced awards to organizations in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin to support paid work experiences for young people affected by community violence. The funding supports skills training and employment and mentorship services. Read more about the awards here.

On June 25, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. The legislation contains several new education investments designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of students in addition to higher-profile gun safety provisions.

The bill’s education-related funding includes:

• $1 billion for states through ESSA Title IV-A, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program
• $500 million for competitive grants through the School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMHS) Grant Program
• $50 million for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program

Read more about the legislation here.

In addition, President Biden signed into law the Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022, which extends flexibilities for child nutrition programs and provides temporary increases in reimbursement rates for school meals and meals provided at child care centers.

On June 21, the Department of Labor (DOL) in collaboration with the Families and Workers Fund held a summit focused on improving job quality and access to good jobs. Speakers represented federal agencies, Congress, state and local government and the workforce.

To start off the Summit, Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su introduced the DOL and Department of Commerce’s Good Jobs initiative, which aims to improve job quality by engaging employers, strengthening workforce pathways and creating partnerships. As a part of this initiative, the DOL identified eight principles of a good job related to the following topics:

• Recruitment and hiring
• Benefits
• Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
• Empowerment and representation
• Job security and working conditions
• Organizational culture
• Pay
• Skills and career advancement

Following Deputy Secretary Su, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh highlighted the importance of workforce pathways; Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg explained how transit employers are using federal grants to provide high-quality workforce training; and Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk shared how the Department of Energy is prioritizing funding for employers that provide evidence of how they’ll create good jobs.

On the local and regional levels, Kathleen Culhane of Nontraditional Employment for Women, a New York City organization that prepares women for skilled trades careers, discussed how her organization partnered with the North America’s Building Trades Unions to offer child care services for women in apprenticeships. Speakers from Portland, Oregon, highlighted the Regional Workforce Equity Agreement, which jurisdictions can sign to hold contractors accountable for creating an equitable and safe work environment for people of color and women. So far, eight jurisdictions have signed on.

Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) served as another keynote speaker at the Summit and discussed the importance of the COMPETES Act, specifically how its passage could create one million additional registered apprenticeships and expand Pell Grants to cover short-term job training. ACTE supports expanding Pell grant access to high-quality short-term education programs as they can help Americans earn credentials and enter the workforce in high-wage, in-demand industries like manufacturing, health care and transportation.

You can view the recording of the summit here and view the Summit’s agenda here.

On Wednesday, June 22, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies released the first draft of its fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of Education and the Department of Labor. While a full, detailed funding table has not yet been released, according to the committee’s initial summary, the legislation proposes a $45 million increase to the Perkins Basic State Grant program – a year-over-year increase equal to what was enacted in FY 2022.  Overall, the bill provides a 15% increase to the Department of Education and a 12% increase to the Department of Labor.  

Encouragingly, this bill provides more funding to the Perkins Basic State Grant program than was requested by the President. However, at a time of record inflation and a growing skills gap in areas such as healthcare and infrastructure, this proposal does not currently provide enough funding to meet the needs of CTE programs and learners. ACTE and Advance CTE have requested that Congress increase Perkins funding by $200M and will continue to work with partners on Capitol Hill to fight for the largest investment possible.  

In addition to Perkins funding, the bill proposes substantial investments across the education spectrum, including:  

Primary & Secondary Education 

• 17% increase for Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title I state grants to local education agencies 
• 123% increase for Teacher Quality Partnership Grants 
• 6% increase for ESSA Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment state grants 
• 20% increase for magnet school programs 
• $1 billion for grants to increase access to school-based mental health professionals 

Postsecondary Education & Workforce 

• 100% increase for Strengthening Community College Training Grants 
• 8% increase for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State Grants 
• 29% increase for Apprenticeship Expansion Grants 
• 5% increase for Adult Education 
• $500 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award 

The subcommittee marked up the bill on Thursday, June 23, advancing it for consideration by the full House Appropriations Committee scheduled for the morning of June 30. We will continue to update you as the bill is updated and inches closer toward passage. If you have any questions, please contact ACTE’s Government Relations Manager, Zach Curtis (zcurtis@acteonline.org).  

Last week in Washington, lawmakers focused on negotiations surrounding gun safety legislation, economic issues, holding additional January 6 committee hearings, approving pending nominations and marking up the first of several Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills. Both chambers will be in town this week following the Juneteenth federal holiday, and we expect that the FY 2023 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill will be marked up by the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittee on June 23. ACTE is also continuing to monitor the negotiations on America COMPETES/USICA. As we await more action, here is the latest from Washington:

• Secretary of Labor Testifies to House and Senate Committees on FY23 DOL Budget Request: On June 14 and 15, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh testified before the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee, respectively, to discuss the Department of Labor’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget request for the Department of Labor. Both hearings included discussion of registered apprenticeship programs and other workforce development issues. Read more about the hearings here.

• America COMPETES/USICA Update: According to a report from Punchbowl News, the conference committee negotiators for America COMPETES/USICA are still working toward a July 4 deadline to complete the process of resolving differences in the House and Senate versions of the legislation. Several provisions may be cut from the bill to expedite passage of the bill prior to the November midterm elections, making it crucial that ACTE members in several key states weigh in with their Members of Congress to urge them to include ACTE priorities in the bill.

• Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Funding: The Department of Labor has announced $201,798,000 in funding to provide training and employment services through the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers Program in 45 states and Puerto Rico to eligible workers affected adversely by foreign trade.
• Administration Announces Talent Pipeline Challenge: On June 17, the Administration launched a Talent Pipeline Challenge to encourage employers, education and training providers, government leaders, philanthropic organizations, and other stakeholders to make tangible commitments that support equitable workforce development in critical infrastructure sectors.

• White House Issues New Executive Order on LGBTQI+ Equality: In an Executive Order released on June 15, the President directed the Secretary of Education to use his agency’s authority to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) students and promote promising polices and practices to support their safety, well-being and rights. The potential impact on education is described in this Education Week article.