By Della B. Cronin

As Congress stares down the calendar, there has been a flurry of activity that has been keeping STEM education advocates busy. In just the past 10 days, the community has reviewed hundreds of pages of legislative proposals looking for the parts that do, could, or should affect STEM education.  The Senate introduced and then quickly marked up a long-awaited proposal to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act.  The House then released a bipartisan proposal to reauthorize the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (which hasn’t been revised since 2006).  The hope is that the bill sees a markup in the House Education and the Workforce Committee before Congress leaves town for six weeks—that departure is scheduled for July 15. 

NCTM is pleased that S. 3084, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act --the Senate’s proposal to update the America COMPETES Act—represents a bipartisan approach to investing in basic research across the federal government, improving agency oversight, and investing in STEM education.  The House corollary to the proposal, which is quite partisan, has little support outside of the House and the hope is that a final plan adopts the Senate’s approach.  The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee recently approved the bill, and its authors, including Senators Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), hope it will be approved by the full Senate by year’s end.  (For more on the bill and the markup, go here.)

The Perkins reauthorization proposal represents a thoughtful approach to updating a law that addresses the quickly changing field of career and technical education.  Much of the bill's substance focuses on reducing bureaucracy, increasing flexibility, and trying to ensure that the programs governed by the law at the middle school, high school, and postsecondary levels are better aligned with workforce demands and that they produce improved results. 

This activity on authorizing legislation is in addition to the fire drills around spending bills.  The House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations was expected to debate its FY 2017 spending plan earlier this month, but action was delayed.  The bill is often subject to rancorous debate around abortion, repealing the Administration’s health care initiative and divisive labor issues.  Given the events of recent weeks, it seemed destined for controversial policy riders around LGBT issues and gun control.  The markup was delayed and is currently expected to take place in July, but it isn’t expected to have particularly good news for the STEM education community.  The newly minted Title IV, Part A block grant, created by the Every Student Succeeds Act, received only $300 million in the bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee weeks ago.  It is unclear whether the program—which could fund a slew of programs, including STEM education curriculum and professional development—will fare any better in the House.  NCTM has been working with a coalition of groups advocating for as much of the $1.65 billion the program could get as possible.  The final decisions on funding for education programs are unlikely to come any time soon.  The Congress will leave town for six weeks in mid-July, return for September, and then get back to the campaign trail in October.  Final spending decisions for the fiscal year that begins October 1 aren’t expected until after Election Day.  A temporary spending bill will almost certainly keep the government running until then.  No one wants the specter of a government shutdown hanging over the elections.  

The Department of Education remains quite busy.  Secretary of Education John King was on Capitol Hill at hearings in the House and Senate recently, answering pointed questions about his plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  It’s clear that Republicans do not trust that he will follow their intentions in regulating the new law.  It’s also clear that he intends to issue regulatory guidance this year.  The community—including NCTM—is reviewing the most recently released package on accountability and consolidated state plans, and feedback is due August 1.  Everyone in the education community is waiting for packages on accountability and the supplement, not supplant provisions of the new law.

It’s July.  And the heat is on.

Della B. Cronin is a principal at Washington Partners, LLC.