Here is Joel’s latest. HOORAY for item #1 under CEF news. Lots of stuff related to the President’s State of the Union Address. Good policy call yesterday. Notes will be out shortly. Jeff > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org> > To: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org> > Subject: Wednesday Update > Date: January 21, 2015 at 3:22:41 PM EST > > > CEF NEWS > > 1. Use of Google Docs: In an effort to reduce the number of attachments in my updates, I will now be uploading most of the attachments to Google Drive and send out the links. Please let me know if anyone has difficulty assessing the attachments this way. Acknowledgement goes to Jim Gelb for suggesting this! > > 2. Membership Forms: Thanks to those of you who have submitted your 2015 CEF membership forms. If you have not yet done so, they are due by February 17, so please download and complete the 2015 membership packet <http://cef.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2015-membership-packet-PDF.pdf> (PDF). > > 3. CEF Meeting: We’ll have our regular Friday meeting this week on January 23 at the Hall of the States; 444 North Capitol St., NW; room 383/385. Thanks to SUNY for hosting! Our guest speaker will be Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence For Hispanics. We’ll have the usual call–in number: 1-877-885-3221 PIN: 247-4788# > > 4. CEF Committees: If you have not yet signed up for a CEF committee, please do so via thisSpreadsheet <http://bit.ly/1xXvZ5W>. Note there are separate tabs for each committee. > > > CONGRESSIONAL/ADMINISTRATION/OTHER UPDATE > > 1. State of The Union: The White House has released a fact sheet that provides additional details on the proposals in the State Of The Union message: Middle Class Economics for the 21st Century - Helping Working Families Get Ahead <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/20/middle-class-economics-21st-century-helping-working-families-get-ahead>. It includes the following on education/ issues: > > · Making High-Quality Preschool Available to Every Four-Year Old: Since the President first called for every four-year-old across the Nation to have access to high-quality preschool programs, Congress has invested $500 million over two years, 34 states have invested over $1 billion, and philanthropic and corporate partners have invested over $300 million in preschool and early education. The President’s proposal would establish a Federal-State partnership to provide all low- and moderate-income four-year-olds with high-quality preschool, while providing States with incentives to expand these programs to reach additional children and to put in place full-day kindergarten policies. The proposal is paid for through an increase in tobacco taxes that will help reduce youth smoking and save lives. The President’s plan for early childhood would also continue to raise the bar in Head Start by investing in teacher quality and ensuring all children in the program have access to a full year of Head Start; expanding Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships; and investing in proven voluntary home visiting programs for new parents. > > · Making Two Years of Community College Free for Responsible Students, So Every Child in America Has Access to At Least Two Years of College: In the lead-up to the State of the Union, the President proposed an ambitious new effort to make two years of college free for responsible students. The proposal, based on similar efforts in Tennessee and Chicago, would make two years of college as free and universal as high school, reduce the cost of a four-year degree, and improve the quality of community colleges that enroll almost 40 percent of all undergraduate college students today. The program will eliminate tuition at high-quality community college programs (either academic programs that fully transfer to local public four-year colleges and universities or occupational programs with good graduation rates and employment outcomes) for responsible students who earn good grades and stay on track to graduation. After States achieve tuition-free community college with their grants, they can spend the remainder on expanding quality community college offerings, improving affordability at four-year public universities, and improving college readiness, through outreach and early intervention. The President’s proposal also includes a new American Technical Training Fund that will help community colleges and other institutions develop programs that have strong employer partnerships and include work-based learning opportunities for students to lead to better employment outcomes. > > · Preparing all Students for Success in College and Careers: Since the President took office, the Administration has worked with States and school districts toward the goal of all children meeting rigorous college- and career-ready standards. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have raised standards for learning in their schools and are supporting the hard work of teachers to enable their students to succeed. The signs of progress are clear: the high school graduation rate is the highest on record, and students are making academic gains. Yet we have a long way to go to ensure that all students, particularly those who are the most disadvantaged, are ready to compete in a global economy. That’s why the President is calling for new investments and innovation that will expand preschool, provide more help to disadvantaged students and the schools that serve them, better prepare and support teachers, and transform our high schools so that our graduates are prepared for college and career. In the coming days, the President will announce his plans to help hundreds of communities across America launch Next-Generation High Schools that will be laboratories for cutting-edge teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), with a focus on preparing many more women and students of color. Building on the tenets of high school reform that the President has put forward and championed, the Administration will also host a Summit on Next-Generation High Schools later in the year. > > · Simplifying Education Tax Benefits for All Students and Families: While the creation of the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) in 2009 made college more affordable for millions of students and their families, our system of tax incentives for higher education is complex, and families are sometimes unable to take full advantage of the benefits. Building on bipartisan reform proposals, the President’s education tax reform plan would simplify, consolidate, and better target tax-based financial aid. The President’s plan would cut taxes for 8.5 million families and students, simplify taxes for the more than 25 million families and students that claim education tax benefits, and provide students working toward a college degree with up to $2,500 of assistance each year for five years. These education tax reforms would complement the President’s other proposals to make college more affordable, including continuing historic increases in the Pell scholarship program and making a quality community college education free for responsible students. > > · Simplifying Student Aid Forms So More Students Take Advantage of Financial Aid: The current Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) requires some applicants to complete over 100 questions to determine their eligibility for Federal student aid. The complexity of the system discourages many eligible students from applying for aid: more than 1 million students who are likely eligible for a Pell grant fail to complete the application. The President is calling for elimination of 27 of the most burdensome and difficult-to-verify questions, including questions about assets that penalize savings and untaxed veterans benefits, child support, and clergy pay. The result would be a simple online application that asks about the student’s address, parents’ income, college choices, and certain other, easy-to-answer questions. > > · Partnering with Industry to Create More Apprenticeship and On-The-Job Training Opportunities So Workers Can Learn the Skills They Need for a Better, Higher-Paying Job: Despite the large and growing demand for talent to fill well-paying jobs in fields like information technology, advanced manufacturing and health care, too many workers lack a clear path to a better job and middle class career. In response to the President’s call to make sure Federal job training is providing workers with the skills they need to secure good jobs that are ready to be filled, a review led by the Vice President resulted in a job-driven checklist of “what works” in job training that is being applied to Federal programs – requiring greater engagement with employers, expanded on-the-job training, and increased use of data to achieve better employment outcomes. The Administration has already awarded over $1 billion in competitive grants in 2014 to industry and education partnerships that applied this checklist, including over $300 million awarded to partnerships to train and hire for in-demand information technology jobs. > > In particular, the President has taken action to expand access to apprenticeships, the gold-standard of investments to help workers advance into good, middle class jobs. Working with states, employers, and unions, Administration initiatives supported the country’s largest increase in registered apprenticeships in nearly a decade, and the President is committed to doubling down to build on and accelerate that expansion this year by aligning Federal investments with this proven path to the middle class and calling on more employers to expand apprenticeships. > > Now, the President is also calling on employers to adopt or expand additional measures to help front-line workers gain the training and credentials to advance into better paying jobs - including paying for college education, offering on-the-job training for career progression, and increasing access to technology-enabled learning tools. Adopting best practices such as these can also improve employee retention, engagement, motivation, and productivity. To that end, the White House will convene employers, foundations, educators, unions, non-profits, and others who are equipping front-line workers with the skills they need to advance into better paying jobs and punch their tickets to the middle class. > > · Investing in R&D, in Key Areas from Precision Medicine to the BRAIN Initiative: America's long-term economic competitiveness and growth depend on robust investments in research and development (R&D), which provide the foundation needed to further grow the economy. The President is calling for a major increase in R&D investments, including precision medicine, combatting antibiotic resistance, and the President’s signature BRAIN Initiative. The President’s proposal would invest in precision medicine, an innovative field that provides healthcare professionals with tools, knowledge, and treatments to tailor care to a person’s unique characteristics – such as their genetic makeup. Recent advances in genomics and digital data have produced powerful new discoveries about health and disease that have made it possible to design highly effective, targeted treatments for cancer and other diseases. The President’s proposal will engage patients and healthcare providers in delivering this new era of medicine. To help address the global threat of infectious disease created by rampant spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the President also proposes to nearly double the Federal investment in antibiotic discovery. The President’s proposal also continues to invest in Alzheimer’s research and the multi-agency BRAIN Initiative. > > 2. More Key Committee Changes: Based on below, we’ve updated our list of members and top staff on our key committee changes <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50JIO5XhtlPcm02czJQSXlsT2M/view?usp=sharing> (which includes who was on the committee last Congress, but is no longer) as well as a clean copy of key committee members <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50JIO5XhtlPWTVtMUw4SGpRTnM/view?usp=sharing>, highlighting the new additions. > > · Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations: Yesterday, Senate Appropriations Chairman Cochran officially announced <http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/cochran-announces-senate-appropriations-subcommittee-chairs> all of the subcommittee chairs. As we knew, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is the new chair of our subcommittee. He issued a brief statement <http://www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news?ID=6efaba67-00f1-4be5-8ff4-09da79502ee2> on his appointment. > “Our top domestic priority should be creating more opportunity for American families and workers. This subcommittee will address ways to improve workforce training, veterans’ training, access to higher education, and other ways to help more people succeed,” Blunt continued. “I also hope to put more focus on strengthening mental health care and increasing NIH research to ensure people have better access to the high-quality cures they need.” > > We’re still waiting for Senate Appropriations Subcommittee member assignments > > · House Budget: The committee ratio will be 22 Republicans to just 14 Democrats. There are four new Dems on the committee: Debbie Dingell, Mich.; Ted Lieu, Calif.; Donald Norcross, N.J.; and Seth Moulton, Mass. Several current members have left the Committee due to committee term limits. Our key committee changes <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50JIO5XhtlPcm02czJQSXlsT2M/view?usp=sharing> shows those. > > · House Education and the Workforce: Today, at its organizational meeting, Chairman Kline announced that <x-msg://221/Subcommittee%20on%20Early%20Childhood,%20Elementary,%20and%20Secondary> Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) will remain as chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training and Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) as Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. > > We’re still waiting for the Democrats to announce their ranking members and for both sides to make subcommittee assignments. Also see: Rep. Bobby Scott’s Prepared Remarks <http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/1%2021%2015%20-%20RCS%20Opening%20-%20Ed%20Workforce%20114th%20Organizational%20Mtg%20final%20formatted.pdf>. > > The Committee also adopted its Oversight Plan <http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/114th_congress_oversight_plan_1-16-15.pdf>. I encourage everyone to take a look, as its lists “several particular areas for oversight and investigation in the 114th Congress”, including ESEA waivers, duplicative K-12 programs, Higher education transparency, Higher education regulations and reporting, implementation of WIOA. > > · Senate HELP: The Committee will hold its organizational meeting on January 28 at which it will make its subcommittee assignments and adopt its rules. > > 3. No FY 15 Sequester: Yesterday, OMB issued its Final Sequestration Report for FY 2015 (January 2015) <http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/legislative_reports/sequestration/sequestration_final_january_2015_president.pdf>, which states that “enacted or continuing appropriations are within the discretionary spending limits for 2015, and a sequestration of discretionary budget authority pursuant to section 251 of BBEDCA is not required.” > > 4. ESEA: This morning, the Senate HELP Committee held its first hearing on ESEA: Fixing No Child Left Behind: Testing and Accountability <http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=1ad5f642-5056-a032-52f2-57297bf23f2b>. From that link one can watch the entire 2 hour and 40 minute hearing, as well as get copies of the witnesses’ written statements. Also see Chairman Alexander’s opening statement: It is Time to Fix No Child Left Behind <http://www.help.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=83559685-8e10-4610-8adc-d07ce395c026&groups=Chair>. Also: No Resolution to Annual-Testing Debate After First NCLB Reauthorization Hearing <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/01/no_resolution_to_annual_testin.html> (Politics K12). > > The Committee has officially announced its second hearing for January 27: Fixing No Child Left Behind: Supporting Teachers and School Leaders <http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=501f2541-5056-a032-5289-c10bc632ec00>. One more hearing is planned for Feb. 3. Alexander stated he intends to report a bill out of Committee by the end of February and expects it will take up at least two weeks of floor time. > > More ESEA news: > · ESEA Overhaul Could Actually Happen This Year <http://www.nationaljournal.com/policy/insiders/education/esea-overhaul-could-actually-happen-this-year-20150120> (national Journal) > · Hill fight on No Child Left Behind looms <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/no-child-left-behind-congress-114416.html> (Politico) > > 5. HEA: At the ESEA hearing, Chairman Alexander announced that the committee will hold a 2/24 HEA hearing on Higher Ed deregulation. > > 6. ESRA: The HELP Committee is on a roll, also announcing it will markup the ESRA reauthorization on January 28. > > 7. Head Start: The Education and the Workforce Committee today released <http://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398266> a white paper <http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/head_start.pdf> outlining goals to reform the Head Start Act and requesting public feedback on ways to strengthen the law. To submit comments to the committee, email headstart.reform@mail.house.gov <mailto:headstart.reform@mail.house.gov>. > > 8. Briefing on Role of the School Counselor in College and Career Readiness from Kindergarten through Graduation: See attached for more details. > > What: Briefing on Role of the School Counselor in College and Career Readiness from Kindergarten through Graduation > When: 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, January 29, 2015 > Where: 2168 Rayburn House Office Building (The Gold Room) > Please RSVP to Amanda Fitzgerald (afitzgerald@schoolcounselor.org <mailto:afitzgerald@schoolcounselor.org>) by Noon on 1/26 > > 9. New Study Finds “U.S. Has The World’s Most Educated Workforce—But Students Face Unparalleled Levels Of Poverty, Inequity And Violence”: Yesterday, CEF member the National Superintendents Roundtable and the Horace Mann League (HML) issued a report,School Performance in Context: The Iceberg Effect <http://www.superintendentsforumtest.org/?page_id=1262>, that “examined six dimensions related to student performance—equity, social stress, support for families, support for schools, student outcomes, and system outcomes—in the G-7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) plus Finland and China.” For more details see: The Iceberg Effect <http://www.superintendentsforumtest.org/?page_id=1262>. > > > 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> > >