The Capitol was a quiet place with members of the House and Senate back home for the week-long Memorial Day recess. The rest of us who remained in town spent our time placing bets on whether or not the House Appropriations Committee really can pass all 12 of the Fiscal Year 2016 spending bills by the July 4 recess. The House will take up on the floor its next two appropriations bills—Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD)—which will mean five appropriations bills will have been voted on and passed by the House. The full committee will mark up the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense appropriations bill, followed by the subcommittee markup of the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill. If this aggressive schedule continues, the Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education (LHHS) bill will most likely go last, and it would have to be marked up in subcommittee the week of June 15 in order to go to full committee the week of June 22. The House will be back in recess again the week of June 29. On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Appropriations Committee plans to markup two bills per week in each of the following five weeks: June 8, June 15, June 22, July 6, and July 13. It is not clear yet when the committee will take up the LHHS appropriations bill, but it is likely that the CJS bill will be marked up mid-June. 

In addition to making bets on the appropriations timeline, the education community continued to speculate on the timeline for the Senate to begin its floor debate of the Every Child Achieves Act (S 1177). While we know Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee staff are gearing up for the fireworks to begin the week of June 15, it remains to be seen if other legislative business like the annual National Defense Authorization bill, Export-Import bank reauthorization, and FISA Court extension debate will get in the way. If so, we could see ECAA debate begin after the country’s birthday celebration.

America COMPETES and STEM Education Act
The House debated and passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1806). The mostly party-line vote was 217-205. Numerous science advocates opposed the bill for authorizing National Science Foundation (NSF) appropriations by directorates, preferring investments in certain types of science over others and making changes to the National Science Foundation’s peer review process. Before the House floor debate, the White House sent a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) to House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas)—and the 10 cosponsors of the bill—threatening to veto H.R. 1806. The veto threat was primarily in opposition to the authorized appropriation levels in the bill for the Department of Energy (DOE), NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), that would “undermine critical investments in science, technology, and research.” The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015 will move to the Senate, where there is no counterpart to the bill. Also, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held an executive session to markup 12 bills, including the STEM Education Act of 2015 (H.R. 1020)—that passed the House in February with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill redefines STEM education to explicitly include computer science, broadens the eligibility of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, and expands NSF’s efforts to support informal STEM education. Similar to the House, the bill passed out of the Senate Committee in a bipartisan fashion without much discussion. The STEM Education Act has moved through the House and Senate Committee with limited opposition, but the future of the bill is still uncertain as it moves to the Senate floor.

Invest In Us Hosts Virtual Town Hall
Invest In Us hosted a virtual town hall, “School-Community Partnerships to Build Strong Early Learning Communities that examined strategies school districts can employ to build access to high-quality early learning programs. Roberto Rodriguez, deputy assistant to the president for education, opened the event by expressing President Obama’s support for expanded access to high-quality early learning programs and urging participants to get involved with the Invest In Us initiative. Libby Doggett, deputy assistant secretary for policy and early learning at the Department of Education, and Linda K. Smith, deputy assistant secretary and inter-departmental liaison for early childhood development at the Department of Health & Human Services, spoke about how they are working together to create a more comprehensive system of supports for young children, with a renewed focus on high-quality programming, health, early screenings, social and emotional development, mental health, and other important areas of child development. 

Bipartisan Congressional Delegation Meets with Transatlantic Allies
The House Education and the Workforce Committee announced that a bipartisan delegation of members on the committee are traveling through Northern Europe during to exchange ideas on ways to improve education and workforce competitiveness with their international counterparts. The bipartisan delegation includes Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) and Representatives Tom Price (R-Ga.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.), Rick Allen (R-Ga.), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.). In Norway, the delegation met with members of the Labor and Social Affairs Committee of the Norwegian Parliament as well as the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise to discuss the importance of vocational education and apprenticeship training in order to ensure students are obtaining skills for industry-demand jobs. The U.S. delegation also met with members of the Swedish Parliament’s education and labor committees to discuss the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the importance of teacher quality, school choice, and STEM education. Kline stated, “Our nations are wrestling with many of the same challenges and it was a pleasure to speak directly with our transatlantic allies on important issues facing our schools and workplaces.

Pathways for Out-of-School and At-Risk Youth
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) hosted a webinar, “Postsecondary Pathways for Out-of-School Youth.” Kisha Bird, director of youth policy, gave a brief summary on how the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) improves and expands services to disadvantaged youth. WIOA was signed into law by President Obama on July 22, 2014, and many of the new provisions will take effect on July 1, 2015. Amongst these new provisions, Bird noted a few major changes that include:

• 75 percent of funds for youth are required to be spent on out-of-school youth;
• the out-of-school eligibility requirement includes people from ages 16-24; and
• the new law requires 20 percent of Youth Formula Funds to be spent on paid and unpaid work experiences—including summer jobs programs. 

Early Childhood Education Bill is Reintroduced in Both Chambers
Representatives Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) along with Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Strong Start for America’s Children Act. Both bills are similar to the early childhood bill that was introduced in the 113th Congress by former Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and former Representative George Miller (D-Calif.) to establish federal-state partnerships to provide high-quality public prekindergarten programs for all children from low-income and moderate-income families; establish Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships; allow the Health and Human Services Secretary to reserve funds to support child care training, licensure and professional development; and support evidence based voluntary home visitation programs. However, Murray and Scott’s early childhood bills differ from the 113th Congress versions by adding to state data collection points, redefining terms, changing application requirements, and increasing authorized appropriations for IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Part B and C, among other minor changes. It is also important to note that the House and Senate versions of the Strong Start for America’s Children Act, in the 114th Congress, are similar but not identical.

Political Polarization and Education Policy
The Albert Shanker Institute hosted an event titled, "Education and Economic Policy in an Age of Political Polarization: Is There a Good Way Forward?" which offered a wide-ranging discussion that touched on the polarization of the political parties and its effect on legislating at the federal and state levels, with a particular focus on how modern-day politics influence efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Panelists argued that participants in the country’s elections are increasingly acting as “tribes.” That is, there are a number of factors that affect political inclinations that are far more complicated than simply “Republicans versus Democrats.” Religious beliefs, ethnic background, pathways to U.S. citizenry, economic status, geography (rural versus urban), and other factors can directly influence party affiliation and leanings within a party. This makes elections more difficult to predict and also makes federal legislating far more difficult, forcing many issues to play themselves out at the state and local levels. Related to education policy, panelists noted that states’ rights have become a big issue in the federal debate of ESEA, particularly in the House. Panelists noted that even though the recent unanimous approval of the Every Child Achieves Act in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is encouraging, it may only have delayed—not avoided—many of the “tribal” issues that will come up on the Senate floor. Congress still has a difficult road ahead in its efforts to fix what everyone agrees is a broken law, at least in part because of the many tribes they hear from and try to appease as federal legislators.

Awards for School Counselors and a FITW Competition
There was news from the Department of Education (ED) about two competitive grant programs. ED announced that more than $24.8 million has been awarded to establish or expand elementary and secondary school counseling. Grants went to 67 school districts across 26 states to aid schools in hiring qualified mental health professional to expand the range, availability, quantity and quality of counseling services. The funds are also allowed to be used to support parental involvement, professional development for counselors and teachers, and to collaborate with community-based organizations that provide mental health services. Just today, ED announced the availability of $60 million for First in the World (FITW) grants. The Federal Register released a notice for FITW applications for development grants—focused on  testing innovative practices associated with student success—and validation grants—focused on evidence to confirm the effectiveness of promising practices when implemented more broadly. This year ED has set-aside $16 million [of the $60 million available] for minority-serving institution, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The FITW application deadline is June 26 with awardees being announced in September.

Consumer Info and College Choice
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing, “Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: The Role of Consumer Information in College Choice.” The hearing was a follow-up to the committee’s white paper on consumer and federal disclosures. HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) opened the hearing explaining its purpose was to provide insight into what information prospective students want and need to know in order to make their college choice and to examine whether that matches with all the information that federal law requires colleges and universities to collect. Alexander said that the government does a better job collecting information from schools than sharing that information with students. He suggested that the federal government enable others to take this information and make it useful, rather than trying to do it themselves. Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said that a lack of clear consumer data makes it difficult for students to navigate college options and that Congress must work to improve the current system to collect this data. “Students need to easily see accurate information on: how much they will pay and borrow, the amount they’ll earn if they complete their degree, and their chances of succeeding,” she said. Witness Mark Schneider, vice president and institute fellow at the American Institute for Research and president of College Measures, said that Americans must break their “bachelor’s addiction” and explained that subbaccalaureate degrees can lead to earnings that will place students in the middle class and sometimes lead to jobs with salaries higher than those of students with a bachelor’s degree. He suggested merging Federal Student Aid (FSA) data with IRS income data to provide relevant and useful information on post-degree outcomes. Schneider also stressed the importance of collecting and presenting data on a program level rather than just an institutional level. All of the panelists agreed that using data that focuses on long-term student outcomes would be critical in helping students find their best fit college program. Panelists also agreed on the need for simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and requiring schools to post net price calculators on their websites.

School to Prison Pipeline
The New America Foundation held an event, “The Criminalization of Black Youth in the Classroom.” Conor Williams, senior researcher in the Education Policy Program at New America, delivered introductory remarks and reflected about his own racial privilege as a white male and how it has complicated the way that he does his research around race. Keynote speaker Bahiyyah Muhammad, assistant professor of criminology at Howard University, posed the question, “How can we make schools a better place to end the school to prison pipeline?” She spoke about teachers who are afraid of some of their students, and has created panels of students and teachers to create safe spaces for discussions. She observed that this format affords students the opportunity to see their teachers as humans and vice versa. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones moderated a discussion with Muhammad, Ed Davies, executive director of DC Trust, educator and author Jose Vilson and Thomas Mariadason, staff attorney at the Advancement Project. They began by noting how the school shooting in Columbine was important because it led to rapid action to enhance policing in schools. They discussed the irony of police funding that was designed to react to a crime committed by white students (to date, there are no metal detectors at Columbine High School), but ended up targeting students of color. They discussed how zero tolerance rules place more students of color into the juvenile justice system, and focused particularly on the startling number of preschool children of color who have been suspended. Vilson observed that teachers tend to make an example out of children of color more often than white children. Muhamman connected the enactment of No Child Left Behind, a culture of fear, and the privatization of prisons to the increase of incarcerated young people. She remarked that private prisons build new facilities based on how many children are below grade-level according to elementary school test scores. Davies said that we must not discount emotional disabilities when assessing students for special education services and added that racial problems really stem from the way that we relate to each other. Mariadason suggested that the response to the school-to-prison pipeline needs to be more urgent in order to break the cycle, and Davies added that it takes changing our personal orientation and will toward the world, not just political change.