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July 9, 2018 | Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
A VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
Congress continues its work on advancing funding bills for the next fiscal year. Funding for student aid and other education programs is provided via the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies appropriations (Labor-H) bill. The House’s Labor-H bill would fund the Department of Education (ED) at $74.4 billion while the Senate’s version would fund ED at $74.9 billion. Both versions are significantly higher than the $63 billion in ED funding requested by the President. More information on the appropriations process can be found below.
Efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act seem to be stalled. The PROSPER Act, a reauthorization proposal being led by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has failed to garner support from a sufficient number of U.S. House members. Attention has shifted to career and technical education (CTE), where the Senate committee overseeing education recently approved a reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. It is not clear if the full Senate will take up the bill; the House passed their version last summer.
In regulatory news, ED has officially delayed state authorization regulations regarding distance education until July 1, 2020. The Department has indicated it will negotiate new rules to revise provisions of the regulation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and ED have also withdrawn guidance documents that contained recommendations for schools wishing to using race as a factor in admissions. Documents from 2011 and 2016, which explained how institutions could, “voluntarily consider race to further the compelling interest of achieving diversity,” were part of seven documents rescinded in a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) ED and DOJ jointly released on July 3. The July 3 DCL notes that these previous guidance documents, “advocate policy preferences and positions beyond the requirements of the Constitution, Title IV, and Title VI… [and] are inconsistent with governing principles for agency guidance documents.” While the earlier guidance documents did not have the force of law, their removal potentially indicates the Trump Administration’s position on the issue and how it may handle related complaints.
IN THIS ISSUE
CONGRESSIONAL UPDATES AND NEWS
House and Senate Release Education Funding Priorities for FY 2019
Senate Confirms Two More Department of Education Nominees
House May Tackle Tax Reform 2.0
Travel Ban Upheld; DACA Votes Fail
ADMINISTRATION AND AGENCY UPDATES AND NEWS
Trump Administration Proposes to Merge Education and Labor Departments
Higher Ed’s Ties to Chinese Company Questioned
Academies Release Report on Sexual Harassment of Women
Grants to Support Child Care Access for College Students
IES News and Notes
FACTS AND FIGURES
Federal Higher Education Expenditures
WHAT WE'RE READING
ACE: Minority Serving Institutions as Engines of Upward Mobility
CONGRESSIONAL UPDATES AND NEWS
House and Senate Release Education Funding Priorities for FY 2019
The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations Committees have each released their own version of the bill funding the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and other education priorities in fiscal year (FY) 2019. The bills largely reject funding cuts proposed by the Trump Administration and instead provide modest increases to programs of interest to the university and scientific communities. Though both versions would provide increases to ED’s overall budget over FY 2018 funding, the Senate bill would allocate a more robust increase than the House’s proposal. Of particular note to universities, the Senate spending bill would raise the maximum individual Pell Grant award to $6,195, while the House bill would keep the level constant at $6,095. However, this increase and other priorities in the Senate bill would be funded by a $1.2 billion reduction in the Pell Grant surplus. Neither bill proposes an increase to Federal Work-Study or the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program, which would be provided level funding in both bills.
Both bills would provide an increase to the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program at ED, with the House bill proposing a $25 million (20.8 percent) increase and the Senate bill proposing a $15 million (12.5 percent) increase over the FY 2018 level of $120 million. Within the higher education programs at ED, the House appropriations bill would provide an additional $50 million (5.0 percent) for TRIO programs and an additional $10 million (2.9 percent) for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) programs over the FY 2018 levels. The Senate appropriations bill does not include proposed increases to either of those accounts. The Senate bill would provide a modest $2 million (0.3 percent) increase to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within ED.
On June 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve their version of the bill, and the bill will likely be packaged with other FY 2019 funding bills before consideration by the full Senate. The House Appropriations Committee has yet to vote on their funding bill following several delays but is expected to hold a vote on July 11.
Sources and Additional Information:
Senate Confirms Two More Department of Education Nominees
After being first nominated by President Trump in December 2017, the Senate, in late June, officially confirmed Frank Brogan to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) at the Department of Education (ED). Brogan, the former Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and President of Florida Atlantic University, had been serving in an acting capacity at ED as Assistant Secretary of Postsecondary Education (OPE) and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD). Earlier in June, the Senate confirmed Kenneth Marcus for the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights within ED. Marcus had previously served in the George W. Bush Administration as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights and most recently as President and General Counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Sources and Additional Information:
House May Tackle Tax Reform 2.0
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has stated recently he would like to proceed with another round of tax reform bills in July with possible House votes later in the fall. The Chairman plans on considering tax legislation that will make the temporary individual tax cuts outlined in last year’s tax reform law permanent, incentivize retirement and education savings, and offer technical corrections. It is unknown if the Committee will consider proposals of interest to the higher education community, such as instituting a universal charitable giving deduction, repealing certain fringe benefits from unrelated business income, and repealing the private university endowment tax.
Even if the House passes a new set of tax reform bills this fall, it will be difficult for the Senate to advance new tax legislation given the bills would need to garner the support of 60 Senators. Last year’s tax law advanced under a budget reconciliation procedure that allowed a simple majority vote, which is not currently available to this potential new round of tax bills.
Sources and Additional Information:
Travel Ban Upheld; DACA Votes Fail
On June 26, the Trump Administration experienced a major win in its seventeen-month legal battle over immigration policy. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld President Trump’s third version of his executive order, which restricts visas for applicants from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, and Venezuela. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court’s majority found that President Trump’s “travel ban” is “squarely within the scope of presidential authority.” This decision reverses lower-court orders that rejected the ban as unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the Administration “has set forth a sufficient national security justification” for banning migrants and refugees from certain countries. According to an amicus brief filed by the American Council on Education, there were approximately 15,000 students and 2,000 faculty from the seven affected countries in the U.S. in 2016-2017.
Two attempts by U.S. House Republicans to address immigration reform and provide a legislative solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recently failed. The passage of another immigration bill in the House is highly unlikely, as it will continue to be difficult to craft a bill that would garner enough Republican support and appease the views of President Trump.
Sources and Additional Information:
ADMINISTRATION AND AGENCY UPDATES AND NEWS
Trump Administration Proposes to Merge Education and Labor Departments
On June 21, the Trump Administration released Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations, the Administration’s formal proposal to reorganize and reform agencies throughout the federal government. The proposal builds upon a White House directive to federal agencies to develop comprehensive plans to reorganize and make significant reductions to the federal civilian workforce. The reorganization plan proposes to merge the Department of Education (ED) and Department of Labor (DOL) into a single agency, the Department of Education and the Workforce (DEW). This agency would focus on education, skill development, workforce protection, and retirement security, among other issues. The proposal would merge all existing DOL and ED programs into a single department with four “sub-agencies.” These “sub-agencies” would include “K-12,” “Higher Education/Workforce Development,” “Enforcement,” and “Research/Evaluation/Administration.” Of interest to institutions of higher education would be the creation of the “American Workforce and Higher Education Administration” (AWHEA) which would oversee higher education and workforce development programs. Among other responsibilities, this entity would expand access to short-term credentialing programs and streamline the way institutions interact with the student loan system.
Sources and Additional Information:
Higher Ed’s Ties to Chinese Company Questioned
Several members of Congress recently sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, calling attention to partnerships between Huawei Technologies and institutions of higher education. The letter requests that,
“...the Department of Education immediately request (and require) information from the U.S. universities involved in any partnership with Huawei, especially those receiving any federal research funding (including Department of Defense funding) to gather information related to whether any such funding is involved in a Huawei partnership, and whether any research personnel (including Chinese nationals who may be involved in a so-called ‘Talents’ program) are involved in these efforts.”
Attention by Congress and the Trump Administration to the potential exploitation of higher education by foreign entities, in particular China, has been growing. Congress has held multiple hearings on issues spanning student visas, foreign talent recruitment programs, the openness of research, intellectual property, relationships and partnerships with foreign entities, and more. It is possible that federal funding, particularly Department of Defense (DOD) funding, could be restricted if institutions are not able to comply with vague requirements around ties to China and foreign entities.
Sources and Additional Information:
Academies Release Report on Sexual Harassment of Women
Last month, the National Academies released a report on the sexual harassment of women in academia. The report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, calls attention to the negative impact sexual harassment has on research and the scientific community. The report notes that sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering and medicine, with gender-based harassment more common than sexual coercion, or unwanted sexual advances. A key recommendation of the report was the need for institutions to foster cultures of respect rather than focusing solely on legal compliance. In sharing its recommendations, the report notes, “A systemwide change to the culture and climate in our nation’s colleges and universities can stop the pattern of harassing behavior from impacting the next generation of women entering science, engineering, and medicine.”
Sources and Additional Information:
Grants to Support Child Care Access for College Students
The Department of Education (ED) released their notice for applications for new awards for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program that provides grants to institutions to support or establish campus-based child care programs primarily serving the needs of low-income students. Funding for the CCAMPIS program was tripled in the FY 2018 funding bill and ED anticipates awarding over 200 grants for this competition. Applications are due July 24, 2018.
Sources and Additional Information:
IES News and Notes
Elizabeth Albro was recently announced as the new Commissioner of the National Center for Education Research (NCER) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In previous roles as Associate Commissioner of Teaching and Learning and as Acting Commissioner of Education Research, Commissioner Albro was involved with several large-scale research efforts, including the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative, the National Research and Development Center on Cognition and Mathematics Instruction, and the Early Learning Network. Additionally, Matthew Soldner recently assumed the role of Commissioner of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE).
IES will be posting a series of on-demand webinars on fiscal year (FY) 2019 funding opportunities. These pre-recorded webinars are hosted by NCER and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER). The webinars can be accessed on the IES Webinar Series website.
Sources and Additional Information
FACTS AND FIGURES
Source: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53732.
WHAT WE'RE READING
ACE: Minority Serving Institutions as Engines of Upward Mobility
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