College & Workforce Readiness

Storm Clouds Over Ed-Tech Law’s Renewal

By Andrew Ujifusa — October 04, 2016 5 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Senate bill: proposed prohibitions on the authority of the U.S. secretary of education that echo separate fights over the Every Student Succeeds Act.

But it’s still unclear, with a presidential election and a lame-duck session coming up, whether lawmakers will be able to get a bill to President Barack Obama’s desk before a new administration and new session of Congress begin.

Written by Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act—passed by a 405-5 vote in the House last month—would provide states and districts more leeway when it comes to accountability and goals for CTE programs. It also would establish a new definition for students concentrating in such programs and give states more flexibility over their use of federal dollars.

For the most part, both lawmakers and CTE advocates have hailed the bill. But momentum was checked last month when the Senate education committee postponed a hearing on a Republican-backed Perkins reauthorization bill. The main political flashpoint with the Senate bill: proposed prohibitions on the authority of the U.S. secretary of education that echo separate fights over the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Funding for the Perkins Act stands at about $1.1 billion in fiscal 2016 and is the largest source of federal funding for high schools. It was last reauthorized in 2006. Retooling Perkins has been at the top of Congress’ education agenda for the past few years.

“Perkins has always been a bipartisan issue, so we’re hopeful that things work out in the Senate and they can find a bipartisan way forward,” said Alisha Hyslop, the director of public policy for the Association for Career and Technical Education.

The main concern of various CTE advocates appears to be how the House bill defines a “concentrator” in such programs. Who gets categorized that way, in turn, would affect how states and schools are held accountable for the outcomes of their CTE programs.

For high school students, the House bill defines concentrators as those who have “completed three or more career and technical education courses, or completed at least two courses in [a] single career and technical education program or program of study.”

In a letter sent to lawmakers last month, 24 education associations and other groups wrote that the definition is overly broad and should center more on those students focusing on specific CTE courses of study.

“Combining the populations into one definition of ‘concentrator’ will diminish data quality and make it difficult to truly determine the impact of CTE programs,” the groups wrote.

Hyslop also noted that according to 2009 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, around 36 percent of high school graduates have earned at least two credits in a single area of study in CTE. That’s an appropriate share of students to include in accountability plans, she argued, without including students that “never got in-depth enough to earn a certification that would actually have value in the labor market.”

Incorporating a Blueprint

But in several other respects, both sides of the aisle have praised the legislation.

Rep. Thompson lauded the additional flexibility the reauthorization would give states–they could apply a greater share of federal Perkins funding for their own CTE funding formulas or competitive grants, for example. And Clark said the Perkins bill would direct more resources to promising CTE programs, as well as those that are well-aligned with workforce needs.

As with ESSA, the bill would do away with increasing long-term performance targets for states’ CTE programs, which many came to see as similar to the much-maligned measure of adequate yearly progress under the law’s predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act.

As evidence of the House bill’s bipartisan structure, many elements of the Obama administration’s 2012 blueprint for revamping career and technical education are incorporated into how it would handle an innovation-grant program, said Steve Voytek, the government-relations manager at Advance CTE, a group of state leaders.

This program would help bring innovative and successful CTE programs to scale, with local matching money required to supplement the federal aid. It would also place a priority on programs that serve students from low-income backgrounds.

Political Fight Looms

But it’s unclear what will happen with respect to the Senate reauthorization bill now that the education committee in that chamber has put the brakes on publicly discussing it and possibly voting on it.

Democrats zeroed in on language in the GOP-backed bill that would place numerous prohibitions on the education secretary. It would prevent the secretary, when considering and approving states’ Perkins plans, from prescribing the targets for states’ CTE programs as a condition of approval, the progress expected from certain groups of students, and any specific CTE accountability indicators, among other restrictions.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the Senate education committee chairman, has been battling the U.S. Department of Education for some time over its power under ESSA, especially with respect to regulations governing accountability and federal spending.

That fight could undo the productive bipartisan work that’s gotten Perkins reauthorization quite a long way this session of Congress, said Sasha Pudelski, an assistant director for policy and advocacy at AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

“I’m concerned that politics in the Senate will get the better of policy,” Pudelski said.

The Senate bill also would put more extensive requirements on the use of Perkins funds than the House legislation, according to advocates.

But unlike in previous years when only education advocates were truly focused on getting Perkins reauthorized, other groups have started investing political capital in the effort, Voytek said. That’s why he remains optimistic.

“You’ve seen a massive growth in interest from other stakeholder groups in the private sector, particularly really big employers, that have been really interested in seeing Perkins reauthorization get done this year,” Voytek said.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the October 05, 2016 edition of Education Week as Storm Clouds Loom Over Push for Ed-Tech Law’s Renewal

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness These High School Graduates Earned a Diploma—and a $74,000 Teaching Contract
This district's 'grow-your-own' program includes an extra incentive: a generous starting salary for graduates who come back to teach.
6 min read
Leonellys Rodriguez, a graduate of University High School in Newark, N.J., and recipient of a conditional teaching job offer from the Newark Public School District, poses with Principal Genique Flournoy-Hamilton on June 24, 2025.
Leonellys Rodriguez, a graduate of University High School in Newark, N.J., and recipient of a conditional teaching job offer from the Newark Public School District, poses with Principal Genique Flournoy-Hamilton on June 24, 2025. The district's grow-your-own, dual-enrollment partnership will bring high-achieving students back to the district as teachers.
Courtesy of Newark Public School District
College & Workforce Readiness AP Students Rate Their Favorite—and Least Favorite—Courses of 2025
Students taking AP exams for college credit can review their scores in July.
3 min read
Illustration of diverse students sitting on a stack of huge textbooks with one holding a pencil and smiling. There is a blue background with ghosted math equations swirling around.
iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Summer Jobs for Teens Are Now Scarce. Some Schools Are Trying to Change That
From on-campus job fairs to partnerships with local programs, these high schools are finding teens summer work.
5 min read
Hannah Waring, left, a student at Loudoun Valley High School, and Abby McDonough, a student at Liberty University, work in the strawberry stand at Wegmeyer Farms in Hamilton, Va., on May 23, 2017. Waring and McDonough worked at Wegmeyer Farms for the summer. Summer jobs are vanishing as U.S. teens spend more time in school and doing extra curricular activities, and face competition from older workers.
Hannah Waring, left, a student at Loudoun Valley High School, and Abby McDonough, a student at Liberty University, work in the strawberry stand at Wegmeyer Farms in Hamilton, Va., on May 23, 2017. The teen summer employment rate is down this year, but some schools are trying to create opportunities for their students.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
College & Workforce Readiness College for Students With Intellectual Disabilities Faces an Uncertain Future
Inclusive higher education programs benefit students with intellectual disabilities. But funding challenges are threatening their growth.
8 min read
Students in the TerpsEXCEED program celebrate in their caps and gowns with a photo on McKeldin Mall at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md.
Students in the TerpsEXCEED program celebrate in their caps and gowns with a photo on McKeldin Mall at the University of Maryland in College Park. Inclusive postsecondary programs offer education and opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities, but uncertainties around federal funding threaten their growth.
Photo Credit: Feldy Suwito, Image of Life Photography