Advocate for Math Education
By Della Cronin
October 2018
At the end of September, President Trump signed an $854 billion spending bill that will fund the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Defense for FY 2019, which starts October 1. In addition, the measure includes a "continuing resolution"—or temporary extension of federal funding—that will cover the federal government through December 7 or until the Congress and White House approve the annual spending bills that remain unfinished. With this bill signed into law, members of the House and Senate can start focusing on the November elections.
There is good news in the bill for NCTM and its members. The package increases education spending; the Department of Education would get $581 more than in FY 2018. In addition, the bill rejects the spending cuts proposed by the White House earlier this year. Big-ticket items that the administration wanted to eliminate include the Title IV, Part A block grant (the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program), Title II aid for educator professional development, and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which supports afterschool programs. In fact, Title IV, Part A will see an increase of $70 million, and afterschool investments will grow by $10 million. In addition, Title I would see a $100 million increase, bringing its total to $15.9 billion, and career and technical education would see a $70 million increase in funding from the federal government.
The education community is generally pleased with the numbers but is also disappointed that efforts to attach a clarification that federal education funds should not be used for guns in schools were unsuccessful. NCTM is a member of the Title IV, Part A Coalition that put out a statement on the issue expressing concern about "the Department's consideration to allow school districts to purchase guns with SSAE grant funds," but Congress failed to clarify the issue. The lack of action leaves in place Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's assertion that states can decide how and whether to use certain funds in their school districts. As for other Administration proposals, recently there have been questions in Washington, DC, about how and whether the White House might act on its plan to combine the Departments of Labor and Education. The issue is not addressed in the FY 2019 spending bill that funds both agencies, although there is a request that the Department of Education keep Congress apprised of internal reorganization efforts, and a reminder that since the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education has its own authorizing statute, any changes to that part of the Department of Education would require Congressional approval.
In other Congressional news, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee recently held a hearing on the Every Student Succeeds Act. The hearing, titled, "The Every Student Succeeds Act: States Leading the Way," featured testimony from three state education chiefs.
Last month, the STEM Education Advisory Panel had its first meeting, which was an all-day affair. For most of the meeting, panel members, including members of NCTM, reviewed and discussed the confidential draft Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan, which the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has been working on for months. The last hour of the meeting was open to the public and focused on the Panel's agenda for the coming year. Panel Chair Gabriela Gonzalez of Intel and Vice Chair David Evans of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) discussed the possibility of forming three subgroups focused on themes that recurred throughout their meeting. The subgroups would focus on (1) assessment in STEM for diversity, inclusion, and persistence; (2) criteria and methodologies to be used by agencies in evaluating federal STEM programs; and (3) best practices. The best practices group was particularly interested in a digital repository of best practices that is easily accessible to educators and enables feedback from the classroom. The Advisory Panel plans to work with these subgroups before their next in-person meeting.
What Can You Do?
In coming weeks, the Department of Education is expected to announce the winners of a number of competitive grant programs. Earlier this year, the Department asked for applications for the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) and the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program that addressed STEM education, as required by a Presidential Memorandum issued by President Trump just over a year ago. Look for those announcements and any mathematics-centric winners. Legislative activity will be slower between now and the end of the year, so the single most important way to be heard in coming weeks is to vote on November 6.