Latest from Sarah Abernathy of CEF. One thing that this summary brings home is that despite level funding for adult education under WIOA, a lot of other programs that adult education students or their families or the adult education field potentially benefit from were cut/eliminated, such as education innovation and research, child care access, 21st century community learning centers, promise neighborhoods. Jeff > House FY 2018 Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee mark-up > > · Mark-up summary – This afternoon the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education uneventfully and quickly marked up its fiscal year (FY) 2018 funding bill, reporting it to the full Committee on a party line vote after rejecting one amendment dealing with repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also on a party line vote. Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY) both made opening statements that noted that the cuts in the bill were unnecessary – that the bill is $5 billion below last year’s level, but that the Committee is choosing to cut nondefense discretionary (NDD) spending by $5 billion below the cap allowed in law. Rep. DeLauro noted that they have the resources available but the Majority won’t allocate them, and that this bill is $30 billion below its 2010 level. Even Committee Chair Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) gave a nod to the low funding level when he praised the Subcommittee chair and ranking member for working well together despite always having a low allocation. > > · The full Committee mark-up has not yet been scheduled, but will likely be on Wednesday, July 19, after the State-Foreign Operations bill is marked up. Traditionally, few if any amendments are offered in Subcommittee, and many are offered at the full Committee. > > · Two huge education funding cuts – The biggest education cut is the $3.3 billion rescission of previously appropriated Pell Grant funds (in what’s known as the “Pell Grant surplus”), which is counted as a negative in the amount the bill spends. This allows $3.3 billion to be spent elsewhere in the bill while still staying under its allocation. The second largest education cut is from eliminating Title II – Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, which is a $2.1 billion program that provides teacher and school leader training as well as hiring. > > · More information that we had last night –The attached pdf has CEF’s big funding table with more filled in than last night, based on what Members said at the markup and information we gleaned since the bill was released. Here’s a summary of what we now know about funding cuts: > > o Programs eliminated – Title II ($2.1 billion), comprehensive literacy development grants ($190 million), education innovation and research ($100 million), teacher quality partnerships ($43 million), arts in education ($27 million), school leader recruitment and support ($15 million), child care access means parents in school ($15 million), IDEA special Olympics programs ($13 million) > o Programs that are cut - 21st century community learning centers (cut $192 million), promise neighborhoods (cut $13 million), magnet schools (not sure by how much), graduate assistance in areas of national need (not sure by how much) > > · One amendment on repeal of Affordable Care Act – Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) offered an amendment to prohibit any funds in the bill from being used to implement legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act if that legislation increased the number of people without insurance, increased deductibles, or led people with pre-existing conditions to lose affordable insurance. > > II. New charts on NDD cuts and Education Department funding > > · Attached charts – I’ve attached two updated charts. The first shows the change in NDD funding from FY 2017 to FY 2018 in each House Appropriations Committee bill. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is cut the most, but it is the largest bill, accounting for about 1/3 of all NDD spending. The second chart shows Department of Education funding excluding Pell grants – in actual, nominal dollars – each year since 2010. As you can see, the House bill has a huge cut, but still cuts only about half as much as the President’s budget, which many folks thought Congress would not use as a starting point. > > comprehensive literacy development grants ($190 million),