Advocate Online

From Capitol to Campus

Career and technical education got a significant endorsement in both the House and the Senate in March despite a proposal by the President to eliminate its federal support.

Legislation to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act for an additional five years passed unanimously in House and Senate education committees on March 9, and in an incredibly swift move was then approved 99-0 by the full Senate the following day. The full House will take up its bill in early April.

NEA played a major role in raising key concerns regarding these bills, as well as in making improvements in the legislation to address the problems. Incremental victories were achieved in the House, and there are more opportunities to come.

Chief among NEA’s concerns with the House bill are the proposed elimination of Tech Prep, a $105 million program within the $1.3 billion Perkins Act that helps link secondary and postsecondary career and technical education programs, and the method of measuring academic progress under the law.

NEA negotiations with House Republicans have brought some changes in the language there and may include further improvements.

In the Senate, NEA ultimately supported S. 250, but only after NEA lobbyist Nancy O’Brien, working with a small cadre of career-tech lobbyists, prevailed on language changes that protected the funding for community and technical colleges.