Transcript Legislative and Funding Issues


Status of Pending Legislation
and Reauthorizations
Julia Martin
[email protected]
Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC
Fall Forum 2014
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Agenda
 Review: What has Congress done lately?
 Progress on Policy Legislation
 New Trends
 Outlook for the 114th Congress
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What has Congress Done Lately?
 As of end of September, 113th Congress has passed
 163 bills
 Least of any Congress (112th: 283; 111th: 383)
 18 are bills to rename Post Offices or federal
courthouses
 Includes:
 A limited number of appropriations bills
 A very limited number of non-controversial pieces of
education reauthorization legislation
 WIA
 CCDBG (pending)
 ESRA (pending)
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What has Congress Done Lately?
 Congress scheduled only 15
days of “lame duck” session
between elections and end of
year/end of 113th Congress
 Focus on “must-pass”
legislation only
 i.e. appropriations
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Policy Legislation
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Everything else
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Why Isn’t Education a Priority?
 Limited opportunities to move legislation
 Limited time left on legislative calendar
 High degree of partisanship
 High number of “must-act” issues and priorities
 Constant crisis situation
 Significant possibility of primary challenges, electoral
turnover
 Education not a deciding issue for most voters
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Why Isn’t Education a Priority?
 Bottom line: Congress is focusing on issues where
they
 Can / must take significant action
 Can / must move quickly
 Will maximize opportunity to drive positive publicity /
raise money
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WIOA: The Rare Success
 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (H.R. 803)
passed Congress on July 9th, 2014
 Product of “pre-conference” discussion among
bipartisan group of lawmakers
 “Streamlines” WIA by eliminating some programs
(but maintains major targeted programs)
 Makes some changes to makeup of State, local WIBs
(to increase role of businesses/employers)
 Expands scope of AEFLA program
 Sets new common performance metrics for all
programs
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Charter Schools
 Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 10)
 Would combine two existing federal programs (Charter School Grant
Program and Charter School Credit Enhancement Program)
 15% can be reserved by ED for charter school financing
 10% can be reserved by ED for “national activities”
 Priority to States with more open charter laws
 Changes to lotteries:
 Would allow grants to go to schools that use weighted lotteries that
“give slightly better chances for admission to …educationally
disadvantaged students” (if permitted by State)
 Permits students to go from one charter to another without having to
re-enter lottery
 Authorizes an additional $50 million annually for the Charter Schools
Program (CSP)

Passed House in May 2014 (awaiting action in Senate)
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Early Education
 Administration plan announced in President’s State of the
Union address
 $77 billion in subsidized universal pre-K for low/middleincome families over next decade
 Federal share paid for through increase in tobacco
taxes (maybe)
 States receive funding for adopting certain
quality standards
 Including class size, education level and pay of instructors,
State-level inspections and audits, etc.
 Federal share drops from 90% to 25% over 10-year period
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Early Education
 Strong Start for America’s Children Act (S. 1697)
 Focus on universal, voluntary pre-K for low-income three
and four-year-olds
 Funds would be disbursed based on a state’s share of fouryear olds living at or below 200% of the poverty line
 Requires set staff qualifications, class size requirements,
salaries, early learning and development standards,
longitudinal data systems
 No action to date
 Questions remain about federal role, how to offset cost
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IDEA
 No action to date
 Focus is on “full funding” of existing federal
obligation
 “Full funding” = 40% of excess cost of educating
students with disabilities
 Harkin bill would gradually bring up funding
levels to full federal commitment
 But these initiatives stall because of cost
 Unlikely to move before ESEA
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ESEA Reauthorization: Senate

Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013 (S. 1094) passed
out of Committee on party line vote June 12, 2013
 Based largely on waivers, October 2011 ESEA legislation
 Requires States to adopt standards, assessments,
performance targets
 Sets “n-size” at 15 students
 Increased data/reporting requirements (cross-tabulation)
 Interventions in priority/focus schools
 Adds personnel expenditures to comparability calculation
 States must implement teacher/principal evaluations

Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) says he hopes to get
it to the floor, but prospects still murky
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ESEA Reauthorization: House
 Student Success Act in (H.R. 5) passed House of
Representatives on July 19, 2013
 Similar to bills passed in 112th Congress
 Eliminates AYP, HQT requirements
 Overall smaller federal role
 States would get to set own performance targets, little
federal guidance
 Teacher/principal evaluations required (with student
achievement as a significant factor)
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ESEA Reauthorization: Overall
 Few similarities between bills mean easy conference/
agreement unlikely
 Consensus: reauthorization will wait until mid- to late
2015 (or later!)
Legislators will start from
scratch in 2015
Impact of ESEA
waivers still TBD
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Perkins
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Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act originally
due for reauthorization in 2012
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Bill introduced in Senate in June 2014
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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)
Would reauthorize, promote alignment with other programs,
workforce needs

Some information sessions, one “field hearing” by House CTE
caucus in October 2014

No significant action to date
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Child Care and Development
Block Grant
 Bipartisan, bicameral “pre-conference committee” drafted new
compromise legislation unveiled in September
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Based largely on Senate bill from March
 Compromise bill would:
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Require States to conduct background checks of employees, including
checking state criminal and sex-offender registries and state-based abuse
and neglect registries
Require States to set aside more money to boost program quality
(increasing from 4 percent of total now to 9% after 5 years)
Ensure that program staff are trained in basic safety measures like CPR
Increase State monitoring and oversight responsibilities
Require States to check family eligibility for subsidies no more than once a
year (focus on continuity of child care)
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Child Care and Development
Block Grant

Compromise bill introduced in House as amendment to Senate
legislation in September, passed easily
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Under “suspension of the rules” procedure
Stalled in Senate by hold on legislation from Sen. Pat Toomey (RPA)
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Toomey wanted Senate to vote on his own K-12 background checks
bill first

Senate leadership filed cloture motion to overcome hold with vote
during “lame duck” session

Senate voted 96-1 to overcome hold; bill passed Senate 88-1 on
November 17th
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New Trends
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The New Normal
 Case study bills: WIOA and CCDBG
 In both cases, reauthorization of legislation was:
 relatively uncontroversial
 modest in scope, requiring no additional funds
 but had been stalled for years (WIA: 1998, CCDBG:
1996)
 House and Senate each released text of reauthorization
bills
 But bills were highly partisan, passed only one chamber
 Compromise legislation announced after little-publicized
meetings of “pre-conference committees”
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The New Normal
 Pre-Conference committees allow bills to bypass
normal legislative process
 Including potential pitfalls of Committee/amendment
 Final compromise bills pass with broad bipartisan
support after limited debate
 Lesson: substantive legislation is now most
effectively passed through extra-legislative process
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The New Normal
 Pros:
 Actually moves substantive policy
legislation
 Cons:
 Takes away some avenues for public/
stakeholder/ lawmaker input
 Only works for “non-controversial”
legislation
 Only works for legislation without
significant cost increases
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The New Normal
 How far can Congress take this?
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IDEA reform - NO
 Focus is on funding, and that makes a bill more contentious
ESEA Reauthorization - NO
 Depends on building consensus between Democrats, Republicans
 Will changes be significant/ structural?
 Will there be changes to funding formula?
HEA - Maybe
 Depends on consensus, scope of changes
Perkins - Maybe
 Depends on consensus, scope of changes
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Administration Initiatives
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E-Rate
 President Obama’s “ConnectED” initiative
 Supported in FY 2015 budget proposal
 Accompanied by new financial/in-kind contributions from private
companies
 FCC passed resolution in July 2014 to:
 Add $2 billion (in FCC cash on hand) to program
 Encourage consortium applications, transparency
 Re-work formula (based on student population) in two-year field test
 Focus on wi-fi and phase out other services (voice/paging)
 Some room for additional input on funding distribution, consortium-
based purchasing
 New proposal in November 2014 – will increase E-Rate fees to add
62% more to budget (FCC vote December 11)
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Resource Equity Guidance
 New guidance issued October 1
 No new laws/requirements/sanctions
 BUT does say OCR review will look at:
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Equal access to educational opportunities, such as Advanced
Placement courses, gifted and talented programs, collegepreparatory programs, and extra-curricular activities;
Equal access to qualified teachers, school leaders, and support staff;
Equal access to school facilities, including factors such as
overcrowding, lighting, and accessibility for students with
disabilities;
Equal access to technology and instructional materials, such as
laptops, internet, calculators, and library books;
Disciplinary policies
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Teacher Distribution Equity

Suggested additional waiver renewal priority:

Progress toward equity in teacher distribution
 Pulled when clear States not making progress toward original
priorities
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July 2014 announcement said ED would ask all States to file new
equity plans by April 2015, would:
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Release State equity data
Develop new technical assistance system
November 2014: ED delays due date of systems until June 1, 2015
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Sends State equity data to EDFacts directors
Offers FAQs document (“draft guidance”)
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ESEA Waivers
Source: Ed Week
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ESEA Waivers
 Impact still TBD

give relieve to some districts/States (unless don’t qualify/waiver
revoked)
cause conflict with Congress (and States, as compliance issues, highrisk, revocations continue)
promote administration priorities (but Common Core, testing coming
under fire)
Let Congress delay work on reauthorization?
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"Waivers were a temporary fix that we tried to do on a law that was
outdated, that had perverse incentives, that was hurting children and
hurting adults. And lawmakers need to step up in a bipartisan way and
do their job. Nothing we have done prevents them, prohibits them...
That's just absolutely a dishonest excuse and they need to get past
their dysfunction.“ (Secretary Duncan to Education Week, Sept. 2014)
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ESEA Waivers
 New waiver guidance (issued November 2014) allows
extensions until 2017-18 or 2018-19
 Well into new presidency
 Will likely continue until ESEA reauthorized
 ED must navigate space between offering as many waivers
as possible, and not wanting to give some special breaks
 Continue designation of states as high-risk and waiver
revocation
 But not asking for evidence on success
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Outlook for the 114th Congress
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Outlook for 114th
 Policy
 With Republican takeover of Senate, more leverage
over President
 Priorities:
 Repeal Affordable Care Act (or portions thereof)
 Reduce federal spending
 Reform tax code, including Estate Tax
 Pressure administration on use of Presidential/ executive
authority
 School choice/ charters
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Outlook for 114th
 Policy, cont.
 More immediate debate on:
 Immigration
 ISIS/Syria
 Homeland security
 With possible (but by no
means certain) longer-term
action on
 HEA
 Student loans
 ESEA
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Disclaimer

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information and does not constitute legal advice or a legal
service. This presentation does not create a client-lawyer
relationship with Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC and, therefore,
carries none of the protections under the D.C. Rules of
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with any attorney at Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC does not
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Manasevit, PLLC. You should not take any action based upon
any information in this presentation without first consulting
legal counsel familiar with your particular circumstances.
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