TEACHER EDUCATION DIVISION | COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
Washington Update
June 2026
Dear Colleagues:
On June 4 the House Appropriations Committee released its FY 2027 Labor-HHS-Education bill, and the subcommittee advanced it June 5. This is Congress's first answer to the President’s budget request, and it matters as much for what it rejects as for the cuts it makes.
The headline for us is mixed. The House declined to fold K-12 programs into a single block grant, kept the college-access programs the request would have eliminated, and held the special education account roughly flat. But it cuts the Department of Education about 10 percent overall, eliminates the Teacher Quality Partnership outright, and the program-level detail for our highest priorities (IDEA Personnel Preparation, Hawkins, and special education research) is not yet public. Those numbers arrive with the Committee Report, expected just before tomorrow's full committee markup. So read on knowing this is a moment to be ready, not to draw final conclusions.
1. The Topline, and What the House Rejected
The bill funds the Department of Education at $70.7 billion, about $8.1 billion (10 percent) below FY 2026 and below the President's own $75.7 billion request. Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) frames it as balancing fiscal restraint with key investments and returning decisions to the states; Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and committee Democrats call it a significant cut to programs serving students and educators. The structural point for us: the request would have consolidated 17 K-12 programs into one block grant at a 69 percent cut, and the House rejected that, keeping programs as distinct lines. That preference for distinct lines is the better posture for our discretionary programs, even if it does not yet tell us their dollar levels.
TED Priority Programs at a Glance
TED's four priorities are shaded; amber cells await the Committee Report. Figures are from CEF's preliminary FY 2027 House table (June 4, 2026) and the Committee summaries.
Program | FY 2026 Enacted | President FY 2027 | House Subcmte. FY 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IDEA Personnel Preparation (Part D) | $115M | Consolidated into Part B | Pending report |
| Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) | $70M | $0 (eliminated) | $0 (eliminated) |
| Hawkins Centers of Excellence | $15M | $0 (eliminated) | Pending report |
| Research in Special Ed (NCSER) | $64M | $10M | Pending report |
| Special Education (total account) | $15.49B | $16.03B | $15.54B (+$46M) |
| Institute of Education Sciences (total) | $765M | $261M | $493M (-36%) |
| Title I, Grants to LEAs | $18.43B | $18.43B | $16.53B (-$1.9B) |
| Federal TRIO | $1.191B | $0 (eliminated) | $1.197B (+$6M) |
| Charter Schools | $440M | $500M | $500M (+$60M) |
| Pell Grant (maximum award) | $7,395 | $7,395 | $7,445 (+$50) |
2. Our Four Priorities
Special education overall is funded at about $15.5 billion, roughly $46 million above FY 2026, and the House did not consolidate the IDEA discretionary programs into Part B. But the preliminary table leaves those lines blank, so there is no confirmed House figure yet for Personnel Preparation ($115M in FY 2026), State Personnel Development ($39M), Technical Assistance ($39M), Parent Centers ($33M), or Educational Technology/Media ($31M). Whether Personnel Preparation keeps its own dedicated line is the single most important thing to watch, and the report should answer it within a day.
TQP is the one clear answer, and not the one we wanted: the bill eliminates the Teacher Quality Partnership, zeroing the $70 million it received in FY 2026. The precedent is our best argument. The Department ran TQP at about $11 million in FY 2025 instead of $70 million; Congress rejected that and restored full funding for FY 2026. This elimination is the second attempt at the same outcome, and the first was reversed by a bipartisan process.
Hawkins and NCSER both await the report. The Hawkins Centers of Excellence are not shown in the House table; the request would have eliminated them. Special education research (NCSER) sits inside an IES account the House cuts about 36 percent to $493 million, but the NCSER line itself is not broken out; for reference it was $64 million in FY 2026, and the request proposed $10 million.
So of our four priorities, TQP is eliminated, and Personnel Preparation, Hawkins, and NCSER are unresolved pending the report. If you can tie any of these to a named project, student, or shortage in your state, that is the story appropriators need as the bill moves to full committee and on to the Senate.
3. Across the Rest of the Bill
Briefly, the wider picture. Title I drops to $16.5 billion (about $1.9 billion, or 10 percent, below FY 2026); Title II-A state grants for educator development are eliminated ($2.19 billion), as are English Language Acquisition, Preschool Development Grants, full-service community schools, and adult education ($721 million). On the other side, the bill rejects the request's elimination of TRIO (+$6M) and GEAR UP (+$6M), raises the maximum Pell award by $50 to $7,445, increases charter schools by $60 million, and adds $10 million each to Head Start and child care; campus-based aid is cut, with Work-Study down 26 percent and SEOG down 40 percent. The throughline for us is the combined elimination of TQP and Title II-A: dedicated federal support for the educator workforce is reduced from both the higher-education and K-12 ends, even as the special education account itself holds.
4. What's Next, and What You Can Do
This is step one, not a verdict. The full committee marks up Tuesday, June 9 at 11 AM ET, with amendments typically offered there; the Committee Report, carrying the Personnel Preparation, Hawkins, and NCSER numbers, should post just before. The Senate then writes its own bill, and the chambers reconcile. Last cycle that process restored funding the administration had tried to withhold, including TQP.
Where we are in the process
June 4 | June 5 | ~June 8 | June 9 | Next | Then |
|---|
How a Funding Bill Becomes Law
- President's request (done). A proposal only, and the starting point. It carries no force of law.
- Subcommittee markup (done). The subcommittee approves its draft bill. These sessions are usually short, with few or no amendments.
- Full committee markup (June 9). The full Appropriations Committee takes up the bill, amendments are typically offered here, and the Committee Report is released with the program-by-program levels. The committee votes to report the bill out.
- House floor. The full House debates, may amend again, and votes to pass its version.
- Senate, on its own track. The Senate runs the same sequence in its committee and on its floor, passing a version that usually differs from the House.
- Reconcile the two. The chambers resolve their differences into a single identical bill, often inside a larger package.
- Final passage and signature. Both chambers pass the same text and the President signs it into law.
The fiscal year begins October 1. If Congress has not finished by then (haha, they absolutely will not), it passes a continuing resolution to hold funding at current levels until it does. The numbers can change at every step, which is why naming our programs to appropriators matters now.
An asks. First, watch for the report: I will send the priority-program figures likely tomorrow sometime, with a short read, and when you contact your delegation, name the programs (IDEA Personnel Preparation, State Personnel Development, NCSER, TQP, Hawkins) and tie each to something real.
Closing
On the surface this is a 10 percent cut, and that is serious. Underneath, the House rejected the block grant, kept college access, and held special education flat, a better starting point than the request gave us, while eliminating TQP and leaving our key lines open until the report. None of it is final. A request is a proposal; Congress writes the numbers, one markup at a time, and the House has shown only its broad strokes. You will get the program-level numbers shortly after I do.
Thank you, as always, for the work you do.
With appreciation,
Kait
Kait Brennan, PhD
Policy Advisor, Teacher Education Division
Council for Exceptional Children
