Thursday, July 7, 2016

Happy Jobs Report Day. (It was a pretty good one, btw — the strongest month of hiring since last October. See: http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2016/07/08/june-jobs-report-the-numbers-2/) Here’s yesterday’s update from Sheryl/CEF. I was not at today’s meeting, but I’m told there wasn’t a lot discussed that isn’t covered below. My understanding is that the House Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations bill will be taken up by the full committee on July 13th, but I don’t know if that was confirmed. WIOA Title II adult ed is indeed flat-funded in the House bill. My guess is that since we were flat-funded in both the House and the Senate, flat funding is what we’ll end up with in the omnibus whenever they get around to doing that. (You’ll recall that it is considered all but inevitable that Congress won’t be able to get all the appropriations bills through a floor vote before the end of September, so most are predicting a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and then an omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government through FY17.) Considering the amount of cuts to other education programs in the House bill, and with the spending caps containing their options, I can’t imagine there’s much chance they would bump up the Title II adult ed appropriation in the omnibus negotiation. FYI, while the House subcommittee did redirect money from the Pell surplus, they didn’t follow the Senate’s lead and restore year-round Pell grants. Judging from the conversation at the markup yesterday, however, it sounds like it has a shot at being restored in the omnibus bill. Jeff Jeff Carter — President, National Coalition for Literacy www.national-coalition-literacy.org Email/Phone: Use general contact info below General Contact Info — jcarter@literacypolicy.org or jeffcrtr@gmail.org Personal Twitter: @jeffcrtr | literacypolicy.org Cell: (202) 374-4387 > Begin forwarded message: > > Thursday, July 7, 2016 > > Dear CEF Members: > > I. House Labor-HHS-Ed > > The House Labor-HHS-ED Subcommittee marked up their FY2017 Appropriations bill this morning, approving the bill 8-4 with the vote on party lines. The Senate approved their version of LHHS last month by a vote of 29-1. > > There were a number of policy riders present in the House bill on family planning, joint employer standards, and healthcare. The bill also included education-related policy riders on the "gainful employment" rule aimed at for-profit colleges, forthcoming teacher preparation rules, and the federal definition of a credit hour. > > The House bill also redirects money away from the $7.8 billion Pell Grant surplus to other spending areas unrelated to student aid programs. > > Several amendments were offered this morning, all of which were voted down on party lines. The amendments were all offered by Democratic members of the committee, and they involved addressing gun violence, stripping out all 15 Republican-inserted policy riders, boosting funding the bill, and striking a Republican amendment which reduced Title X funding for family planning. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced an amendment to restore year-round Pell Grants, but that provision was also voted down on party lines. Chairman Cole noted that he believed this issue would be discussed with the Senate, as year-round Pell was included in the Senate version of the bill last month. > > · We’ll be updating the historical funding chart shortly and circulating additional numbers as we get them. > > REMINDER: we have another CEF members meeting scheduled for Friday, July 8th, with David Pomerantz, Minority Staff Director for House Appropriations, and Lisa Molyneux, Minority Staff Assistant for House Labor-HHS-Ed Subcommittee, confirmed as our guest speakers. The meeting will be at 9:00 am at the AASCU headquarters on 1307 New York Ave, NW. Call-in number: (800) 371-9219; Conference ID 9380459. > > II. Education > > Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby Scott circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter urging support of protecting Pell Grant funding. The letter argues that all available resources in the program should be preserved, including the Pell surplus for FY2017. The letter was signed by 120 members, and it can be found here <http://democrats-edworkforce.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2016-07-06%20LHHS%20Letter%20on%20Protecting%20Pell%20Grant%20Funding.pdf>. > > Hillary Clinton proposed a college affordability plan yesterday that would ensure that by 2021, families with incomes up to $125,000 would eventually pay no tuition for their children to attend public colleges and universities. Her campaign stated that 80 percent of families would qualify for this program. > > The House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up the “Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act” (H.R. 5587) this morning, approving the bill unanimously. The rewrite of the law would give states more flexibility over how they spend federal money, and limit the Education Department’s ability to control how states measure the success of programs. View the bill here <http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hr_5587_ans.pdf>. > > The Education Department released new regulations on student testing yesterday, implementing the innovative assessment pilot created by ESSA. The program allows for seven states to experiment with new innovative tests in some school districts, with the goal of producing results comparable to state standardized tests. To apply for the program, states need to initially show that they would be able to achieve comparable results as traditional tests, and then produce hard evidence of that later on. The regulations are part of the Administration’s efforts to reduce the burden of traditional testing and encourage more effective tests. Read more about the regulations and the process for states qualifying for the pilot program here <http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-education-department-releases-proposed-regulations-encourage-better-and-fairer-tests-reduce-burden-testing>. > > During a campaign stop in Atlantic City yesterday, Hillary Clinton proposed plan to unilaterally create a three-month hiatus for borrowers paying back their student loans. During the three months, borrowers would receive advice and repayment counseling, in an effort to help borrowers refinance to cheaper loans. Because of lost interest, the plan is expected to cost upwards of $1 billion. Read more here <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/05/clinton-to-propose-3-month-hiatus-for-repayment-of-student-loans/>. > > III. Job Posting > > · Access Group. Inc. is seeking a Policy Associate to join its Center for Research & Policy Analysis in Washington, DC. The Policy Associate will support and assist the Company in furthering its legislative, regulatory, and administrative policy goals relevant to student financial aid and graduate and professional education. The Policy Associate will primarily be responsible for collaborating with the Director of Policy to implement a grassroots advocacy campaign related to Higher Education Act reauthorization. This work will include: engaging member law schools, monitoring and analyzing legislative and regulatory proposals, advocating for Company policies with Members of Congress, and drafting content as needed. Learn more here: https://workforcenow.adp.com/jobs/apply/posting.html?client=accgroinc1&ccId=19000101_000001&type=MP&lang=en_US <https://workforcenow.adp.com/jobs/apply/posting.html?client=accgroinc1&ccId=19000101_000001&type=MP&lang=en_US>. > > IV. Events > > On July 13, from 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm, Reps. Bobby Scott and Keith Ellison are hosting a Hill briefing entitled, “A Legacy of Excellence: Examining the Unique Role HBCUs Will Play in the 21st Century Economy” in 2261 Rayburn House Office Building. The briefing will stream live on Periscope. The link will be posted on @EdWorkforceDems Twitter page a few minutes before the event starts. They will also be using the #NextGenHBCU. RSVP here <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-legacy-of-excellence-examining-the-unique-role-of-hbcus-tickets-26376876949>. > > If you have an event you would like added to the CEF Update, please email reilly@acg-consultants.com <mailto:reilly@acg-consultants.com>, and we will add it to the email. > > SAVE THE DATE: Legislative Conference and Gala (Sept. 21) Online registration for this year’s Legislative Conference and Gala, on September 21, will be available in the coming weeks. Below and attached is a “Save the Date” flyer. > > > > > My best, > > > Sheryl > > > Sheryl V. Cohen, Executive Director > 1800 M Street, NW > Suite 500 South > Washington, DC 20036 > T: 202-327-8100 > cohen@cef.org <mailto:cohen@cef.org> > www.cef.org <http://www.cef.org/>