Here’s Sheryl’s update from yesterday. I think she has another one queued up for today which I’ll review and send after today’s policy call. Jeff > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Sheryl Cohen <cohen@cef.org> > Subject: CEF Update: 1.31.17 > Date: January 31, 2017 at 1:02:24 PM EST > To: CEFMembersList <CEFMembersList@cef.org> > > > > > Tuesday, January 31, 2017 > > Dear CEF Members: > > I. Advocacy > > · Consider signing NDD United letter opposing sequestration – NDD United is circulating the attached letter to Congress opposing the 2018 sequester and outlining its threat to NDD programs, including education. CEF has signed on, and we encourage all of you to do so, too. Each CEF individual member – and any of your local or state affiliates – can sign separately. One of the great strengths of NDD United is that it speaks on the Hill for such a broad coalition of interests. The deadline for signing is February 10. > > II. Policy Intelligence and Education News > > · House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Democrats – While House Democrats have not publicly made their subcommittee assignments for the Appropriations Committee, we’re hearing there will be one more Democrat than in the last Congress. We expect an announcement soon. > > · Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee members – The Senate has completed its Appropriations Subcommittee assignments. The Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee has the following members (newly appointed are marked with an * below): > > > · Confirmation votes this week – The Senate HELP Committee voted this morning on Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be Secretary of Education and sent her nomination to the Senate floor on a party-line vote, despite Democratic objections over committee procedure. All Democratic members of the Committee voted against the nomination. It should be noted that although Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Collins (R-ME) both voted for DeVos in committee, they expressly stated that they were not yet committed to supporting her on the floor. On education funding, some have worried that the Administration would shift Title I funding to support a $20 billion voucher program for public and private schools, and DeVos did not commit to maintaining Title I. > > Tomorrow the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and then the Senate Budget Committee will vote on the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. There are rumblings that some defense hawks are concerned that his focus on cutting federal funding includes the defense budget, but we have not heard that the nomination is in jeopardy. > > III. Upcoming CEF Schedule > > · For planning purposes, here is a list of CEF events for the next month or so: > · Friday, Feb. 3: No CEF Meeting - change from original schedule > · Friday, Feb. 10: CEF Meeting, AFT (555 NJ Ave, NW) > · Friday, Feb. 17: CEF Meeting (California State, Hall of States, 444 N. Capitol St, NW, room 333) > · Friday, Feb. 24: No CEF meeting > · Thursday, March 2: New Member/website launch event, TBD > · Friday, March 3: No CEF meeting > > My best, > > Sheryl > > > Sheryl V. Cohen, Executive Director > 1800 M Street, NW > Suite 500 South > Washington, DC 20036 > T: 202-327-8125 > cohen@cef.org <mailto:cohen@cef.org> > www.cef.org <http://www.cef.org/> >

I just remembered, after reviewing Sheryl’s CEF update from yesterday, a couple of things that are related to a point raised today during our policy call about Trump’s pledge to invest $20 billion in education: 1. Just to be clear, the $20 billion is a proposed voucher program - vouchers that could be used for either public (including charter) or private schools. I’m not an expert on this stuff, but I don’t think what they have talked about includes using any of those funds for direct funding of charters… perhaps the assumption is that such a massive voucher program would indirectly support charters, if you assume a lot of parents would choose a charter school under such a program. (Somebody on this list is likely more knowledgeable about this than I am.) 2. Second point is related to the point raised on the call that the voucher program wouldn’t be new money but a shift of monies. What I forgot to mention is that the speculation (and concern) is that the administration would specifically shift Title I ESSA funding to this program (money that goes to poor school districts). That would makes sense from a budget standpoint, as there aren’t a lot of other big pots of money in the k12 federal education budget to move around. Long-winded editorial comment you can feel free to skip follows…! This second point above illustrates the potential pitfalls of uncritically chasing opportunities that may arise as a result of one of Trump’s proposals. Let’s say he did propose diverting Title I dollars from poor public school districts to charter schools. And that there was an opportunity to use some of that money to support more adult education charter schools in that package. Those are districts where some of our students and their families live. Does the adult education field really want to be on the side of disinvesting federal funds from those public school systems in order to shift money to adult charter schools? Maybe some would! But I suspect there would be many concerns about this. All the more reason why I hope there are places where we can have honest and robust conversations, from a social justice perspective, on the wisdom and ethics of advancing our field through the charter movement or other “opportunities” where there are legitimate argument that they do harm to our poorest communities and the institutions that they rely on. Jeff > On Feb 1, 2017, at 4:00 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote: > > Here’s Sheryl’s update from yesterday. I think she has another one queued up for today which I’ll review and send after today’s policy call. > > Jeff > >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> From: Sheryl Cohen <cohen@cef.org <mailto:cohen@cef.org>> >> Subject: CEF Update: 1.31.17 >> Date: January 31, 2017 at 1:02:24 PM EST >> To: CEFMembersList <CEFMembersList@cef.org <mailto:CEFMembersList@cef.org>> >> >> >> >> >> Tuesday, January 31, 2017 >> >> Dear CEF Members: >> >> I. Advocacy >> >> · Consider signing NDD United letter opposing sequestration – NDD United is circulating the attached letter to Congress opposing the 2018 sequester and outlining its threat to NDD programs, including education. CEF has signed on, and we encourage all of you to do so, too. Each CEF individual member – and any of your local or state affiliates – can sign separately. One of the great strengths of NDD United is that it speaks on the Hill for such a broad coalition of interests. The deadline for signing is February 10. >> >> II. Policy Intelligence and Education News >> >> · House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Democrats – While House Democrats have not publicly made their subcommittee assignments for the Appropriations Committee, we’re hearing there will be one more Democrat than in the last Congress. We expect an announcement soon. >> >> · Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee members – The Senate has completed its Appropriations Subcommittee assignments. The Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee has the following members (newly appointed are marked with an * below): > <image006.png> >> >> · Confirmation votes this week – The Senate HELP Committee voted this morning on Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be Secretary of Education and sent her nomination to the Senate floor on a party-line vote, despite Democratic objections over committee procedure. All Democratic members of the Committee voted against the nomination. It should be noted that although Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Collins (R-ME) both voted for DeVos in committee, they expressly stated that they were not yet committed to supporting her on the floor. On education funding, some have worried that the Administration would shift Title I funding to support a $20 billion voucher program for public and private schools, and DeVos did not commit to maintaining Title I. >> >> Tomorrow the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and then the Senate Budget Committee will vote on the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. There are rumblings that some defense hawks are concerned that his focus on cutting federal funding includes the defense budget, but we have not heard that the nomination is in jeopardy. >> >> III. Upcoming CEF Schedule >> >> · For planning purposes, here is a list of CEF events for the next month or so: >> · Friday, Feb. 3: No CEF Meeting - change from original schedule >> · Friday, Feb. 10: CEF Meeting, AFT (555 NJ Ave, NW) >> · Friday, Feb. 17: CEF Meeting (California State, Hall of States, 444 N. Capitol St, NW, room 333) >> · Friday, Feb. 24: No CEF meeting >> · Thursday, March 2: New Member/website launch event, TBD >> · Friday, March 3: No CEF meeting >> >> My best, >> >> Sheryl >> >> >> Sheryl V. Cohen, Executive Director >> 1800 M Street, NW >> Suite 500 South >> Washington, DC 20036 >> T: 202-327-8125 >> cohen@cef.org <mailto:cohen@cef.org> >> www.cef.org <http://www.cef.org/> >> > <oledata.mso> > <NDDUnited2017.SignOnDraft.pdf> > > _______________________________________________ > National Coalition for Literacy Members mailing list > Members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org > To unsubscribe: http://lists.national-coalition-literacy.org/mailman/listinfo/members_lists.national-coalition-literacy.org