Washington Update, May 20, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

On Thursday, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole distributed funding caps to his 12 subcommittees, presenting overall totals that fall short of the bipartisan agreements reached during last year's debt limit negotiations. Operating with a total budget of approximately $1.6 trillion, the proposed levels would increase defense spending by around 1 percent for the fiscal year starting in October, while reducing non-defense spending by roughly 6 percent. However, non-defense program cuts are not evenly distributed. Some subcommittees, such as Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, will receive significant cuts of 10-11%. Other subcommittees will have smaller non-defense cuts, reflecting Republican priorities across the bills. These allocations are significantly lower than what Senate leaders from both parties are advocating, suggesting a funding battle is likely to extend beyond the November election.

So, what does this mean? It means that should the House proposal be enacted; education funding would see significant funding cut. Your voices will be critical in the coming months as we cannot take any dollar for granted.

1. Biden- Harris Administration Announces New Efforts to Address Chronic Absenteeism

This week the Biden- Harris Administration announced new efforts to address chronic absenteeism across the US. President Biden called on states, cities and towns, and schools to cultivate a “culture of attendance” and send a clear message that students need to be in school. In a press release from the White House, the Administration said in part:

“To support effective communications, the Administration is sharing tools for messaging effectively to parents about attendance. In addition, the Administration supports efforts by state and local leaders to report in real time on student absences by school—in order to track progress and address challenges as they occur.”

In addition to prioritizing and reporting on absenteeism, the Administration’s strategy calls for adopting four other strategies:

1. Increasing effective communication with families, including the use of tactics like texting, which may be part of creating what Attendance Works refers to as a “culture of attendance”.

2. Visiting families at home to help find supportive solutions;

3. Making school more relevant for students so they want to be there; and

4. Meeting the basic needs of students and families, including through investing in Full-Service Community Schools, which, among other features, connect families to supports such as health care, housing, and child care.

The President’s FY 2025 Budget proposal includes $8 billion in mandatory funding for Academic Acceleration and Achievement Grants to help close opportunity and achievement gaps, including supporting evidence-based strategies to increase student attendance and engagement.

You can read the full press release from the White House with additional information on the effort here.

2. Notice Inviting Applications for ED's Comprehensive Center Programs

The Department of Education (ED) published a Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria (NFP) and a Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for five-year grant awards under ED’s Comprehensive Centers program. Comprehensive Centers provide capacity-building services to State educational agencies (SEAs), regional educational agencies (REAs), Tribal educational agencies (TEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and schools to help improve outcomes for all students. The NIA and associated Final Priorities draw on the work of Regional Advisory Committees—comprised of SEA staff, educators, parents and families, business leaders, postsecondary faculty and administrators, and other partners—that worked collaboratively during the summer and fall of 2023 to identify the highest priority needs facing States, schools, educators, and students.

ED will make awards across three types of Centers: a National Center to coordinate the work of the Comprehensive Center Network and to provide high-quality services in emerging areas of need to support issues related to instruction, learning, and improvement at the national level; 14 Regional Centers, including dedicated Centers for the Bureau of Indian Education and U.S. Outlying Areas, to provide intensive support to SEAs, REAs, TEAs, LEAs, and schools, and serve as an entry point for these entities into the Comprehensive Center Network; and Content Centers to provide targeted and universal capacity-building support in four key areas: English Learners and Multilingualism; Early School Success; Fiscal Equity; and Strengthening and Supporting the Educator Workforce.

Eligible applicants for this program are research organizations, institutions, agencies, institutions of higher education, or partnerships among such entities, or individuals, with the demonstrated ability and capacity to carry out the activities of the Comprehensive Centers program. For inquiries and questions, please email OESE.ComprehensiveCenters@ed.gov. You can learn more about the Comprehensive Centers Program here.

Brochures outlining the Comprehensive Centers program and the emerging Content Centers can be found here and here.

Congress and Washington Update are on recess for the next two weeks, returning June 7th.

Until next time, see you on X (formerly Twitter)

Kait

@brennan_kait