House and Senate appropriators will continue consideration of their respective Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 education funding bills this week.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a markup of its Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS-ED) appropriations bill on Wednesday—it was passed on a party-line vote in subcommittee last week. We have recently learned that the bill proposes level funding for the Perkins Basics State Grant at $1.118 billion, which is a major achievement considering that education funding overall is reduced by $2.8 billion. Perkins National Programs would be funded at $3.8 million, which is $3.6 million below the current level. There will be no funding for the Administration’s proposed American Technical Training Fund in the bill—an amendment offered by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) to fund this program was defeated in subcommittee. Though overall funding for the Employment and Training Administration at the Department of Labor is cut by $196 million, formula grant programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) for youth, adults and dislocated workers are level funded in the bill. It also includes several policy provisions to prohibit the Department of Education from moving forward with regulations to establish a college ratings system, place new requirements on teacher preparation programs or implement its gainful employment rule.
In addition, today, the Senate Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations Subcommittee will begin work on its funding bill, to be followed by full committee consideration later this week. Though it is not yet known how much the Senate bill will provide for Perkins, tight budgetary caps for FY 2016 make it likely that many education and workforce training programs will be cut or frozen at current funding levels as they were in the House bill.
With such an important week for FY 2016 Perkins funding ahead, please take a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress and let them know that funding CTE is a top priority!
Take Action
- Contact your Members of Congress using the CTE Action Center or by phone through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
- Let them know that cutting funding for education and workforce training is bad for students, educators and the economy.
- Tell them to make funding CTE a top priority for FY 2016.
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