And here is Wednesday’s CEF update... Jeff > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org> > Subject: Wednesday Update > Date: April 13, 2016 at 4:32:13 PM EDT > To: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org> > > > > THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS TO DATE: American Alliance of Museums (AAM), ISTE, NACAC, NAfME, National PTA, ProLiteracy, SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Taylor Strategies, and Washington Partners > In order to showcase the breadth of CEF membership, we invite your organization to be a $1,000 sponsor for this event. Sponsorship includes 5 tickets with premium reserved seating and logo placement on the event’s webpage, as well as on select printed materials for the event. Your generous sponsorship will help defray costs associated with catering, closed-captioning services, and printing materials. See attached sponsorship agreement and memo. > > If you are interested in serving as a sponsor or have additional questions, please contact Ally Bernstein at ally@jbernsteinstrategy.com <mailto:ally@jbernsteinstrategy.com> by April 30th, 2016. (See attached) > > 1. CEF Meeting: We will have a regular Friday meeting this Friday, April 15 at 1307 New York Ave., NW, first floor auditorium. Our guest speaker will be Peter Oppenheim, the chief education counsel for the Senate HELP Committee. Click here for the latest meeting schedule <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19p6j32JwTocU56ajhsT2c0WEU/view?usp=sharing>. > > 2. FY 2017 Appropriations: > a. House: The House Appropriations Committee today approved its first FY 2017 bill: Appropriations Committee Approves Military Construction - Veterans Affairs Funding Legislation <http://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394491>. The Committee only approved a 302(b) allocation for that one subcommittee. Apparently, it will release subcommittee allocations one at a time as each bill is marked up in full committee. The MilCon/VA bill’s allocation is $1.8 billion above FY 2016, which means there is now $1.8 billion less than was available in FY 2016 to be divided up among the other NDD subcommittees. > > Two more bills were acted on by subcommittee: Energy and Water <http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/BILLS-114HR-SC-AP-FY2017-EnergyWater-SubcommitteeDraft.pdf> and Agriculture <http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-114hr-sc-ap-fy2017-agriculture-subcommitteedraft.pdf>. I expect those to go to full committee next week. > > b. Senate: Two bills were approved today by Senate Appropriations Subcommittees: MilCon-VA Subcommittee Approves FY2017 Appropriations Bill <http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/milcon-va-subcommittee-approves-fy2017-appropriations-bill> and Energy & Water Subcommittee Approves FY2017 Appropriations Bill <http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/energy-and-water-subcommittee-approves-fy2017-appropriations-bill>. Those are both scheduled for full committee markup tomorrow. MilCon/VA is $3.1 billion above FY 2016, while Energy/Water is $355 million above FY 2016. Thus, the other NDD bills now have $3.46 billion less available to be allocated among them. > > Tomorrow, the Committee will approve its full slate of 302(b) allocations. > > It appears that the next bill to be considered by Senate Appropriations will be THUD. > > 3. FY 2017 Budget: According to CQ, “House Budget Chairman Tom Price is redoubling his efforts to win support for a fiscal 2017 budget resolution by stressing what he calls the “big picture” and detailing what would be lost if the House does not adopt a tax and spending framework for the first time since the GOP took control of the chamber in 2011.” See: Budget Resolution Remains Possible, House GOP Leaders Insist <http://www.cq.com/doc/news-4867770?15&srcpage=news&srcsec=cqn>. > > 4. Budget Process Hearing: The Senate Budget Committee today held this hearing: April 13 Hearing on Fixing Broken Budget Process <http://www.budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/hearing-schedule?ID=F90ABCB0-4162-4B3D-8412-797CE3956394>. From that link you can read the witness’s statements and watch an archived video of the hearing. Also see: Enzi: It’s Time For a Better Budget Process <http://www.budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=6ADC1FB5-CFF3-4C61-8E07-4B9608A3F770>. > > One of the witnesses, Dr. Paul L. Posner, Director of Graduate Public Administration Program, School of Policy, Government and International Affairs at George Mason University said “A performance assessment process may help lay the groundwork for making budget choices that not only address macro fiscal goals but also promote more cost effective use of resources to achieve major policy goals. Such a process would consider the entire portfolio of federal programs and activities addressing a given goal, including mandatory and discretionary spending as well as tax expenditures.” He cited as an example, higher education: > > “The federal budget provides an array of separate grant and loan programs and tax expenditures to help students pay for college, including special programs for veterans. The chart below shows the composition of federal activity - federal spending for higher education will exceed $75 billion, slightly more than the States are expected to spend for their public higher education institutions, with an additional $30 billion of tax expenditures provided through eleven discrete programs in the tax code. These figures do not include federal loans, which now have a total annual volume of $700 billion, even though such programs turn a profit for the federal budget.” > > > According to CQ: > “Senate Budget Committee members indicated on Wednesday that a bill to revise how the federal budget process works could include a switch to biennial budgets, but not a biennial appropriations process. > > “During the second in a series of four hearings on changing the way Congress approaches the federal budget, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that Democrats would support such a proposal as long as it did not include the Defense section of the budget. > > “Once the hearings conclude later this month, Chairman Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyo., hopes to work with Democratic committee members to move a bill changing the way Congress approaches budgeting.” > > 5. GAO Report: GAO today released its 2016 ANNUAL REPORT: Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits <http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-375SP>. Past reports have highlighted some education areas, including teacher quality programs. Thankfully, there were no major critiques of education programs this year. In fact the report notes, “In another example, in our 2011 annual report we found that a proliferation of programs to improve teacher quality complicated federal efforts to invest dollars effectively. We verified that legislation passed by Congress in December 2015 did not include authorization for 19 overlapping programs that were on our 2011 list of 82 distinct programs designed to improve teacher quality. 19 Using Department of Education (Education) data, GAO estimated the decision to not reauthorize saved approximately $800 million based on fiscal year 2016 appropriations for these programs. In addition, Congress included language in appropriations acts that eliminated some barriers to educational program alignment and passed legislation to give Education broader discretion to realign program resources.” > > The only education program mentioned is “The Department of Veterans Affairs could achieve substantial savings by developing guidance and controls to reduce the volume of annual Post-9/11 GI Bill overpayments—which amounted to over $400 million in fiscal year 2014—and to improve the collection of overpayment debts, of which $262 million was still outstanding as of November 2014.” > > 6. National Postsecondary Attainment Rate: The Lumina Foundation this week released its latest A Stronger Nation report <https://www.luminafoundation.org/stronger_nation> that puts overall postsecondary attainment at 45.3 percent nationally. > > 7. Upcoming Event on Personalized Learning: Rachel Norman from NCLD asked me to share this: > > The Alliance for Excellent Education, National Center for Learning Disabilities, and National Council of La Raza > Invite You to Attend a Briefing > > Personalized Learning: Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities and English Learners <http://ncld.co/1VjtTtU> > > Wednesday, May 4, 2016 > 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. (ET) > Registration and refreshments will begin at 1:00 p.m. > > Opening Remarks: > James H. Wendorf, Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities > > Presenters > David Chard, Dean, Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Southern Methodist University > Lindsay Jones, Vice President and Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer, National Center for Learning Disabilities > Maria Moser, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning, National Council of La Raza > Elizabeth Schneider, Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Alliance for Excellent Education > Brian Stack, Principal, Sanborn Regional High School (NH) > > > > The Alliance for Excellent Education is joining with the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to host the release of NCLD’s new report Personalized Learning: Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities and discuss findings from NCLD’s and NCLR’s recent research on personalized learning. > > NCLD’s new report, which will be released at this event, is based on a year-long process through which NCLD and NCLR engaged with leading education and disability experts and advisors—including educators, school administrators, researchers, and advocates—to explore best practices for including students with disabilities and English learners in personalized learning. > > To attend the live event, please register here <http://ncld.co/1VjtTtU>. > > Questions? Please contact NCLD at policy@ncld.org <mailto:policy@ncld.org>. > > Follow the event on twitter: #PLforALL > > > Joel Packer > CEF Executive Director > JPacker@cef.org <mailto:JPacker@cef.org> > 202-383-0083 > 202-255-0915 (cell) > www.cef.org <http://www.cef.org/> > www.Twitter.com/edfunding <http://www.twitter.com/edfunding> > NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS > 1341 G Street, NW > Fifth Floor > Washington, DC 20005 > >