- House budget resolution calls for $330B in education cuts
- Key contracts terminated at the Institute for Education Sciences
- This week in Congressional hearings
- Trump Administration names key Department of Education roles
House budget resolution calls for $330B in education cuts
On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee released their awaited reconciliation blueprint. The budget resolution provides instructions to all committees on how much funding they must cut from mandatory programs under their jurisdiction, or in the case of the tax committee, Ways & Means, how much they can spend. The Committee has struggled to put together instructions that will pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts prioritized by President Trump and still deliver additional savings important to House Republicans.
The budget resolution instructs the House Education and Workforce Committee to cut $330 billion in mandatory education and training spending over the next 10 years. Given the mandatory programs under the committee’s jurisdiction and their costs, it is expected that higher education programs, especially student loans, will be most impacted as the committee works to reach this figure. Many of the programs that community colleges receive money from, including institutional aid programs and competitive grants programs, are funded through discretionary, rather than mandatory funding and cannot be cut as part of the reconciliation process. A small portion of the Pell Grant program is funded through mandatory funding, but the bulk of the program is funded through the discretionary appropriations process. However, the committee can consider new risk-sharing schemes as part of reconciliation.
As the first step of the reconciliation process, the budget resolution needs to be approved by the Budget Committee. It will then be considered by the full House, where it will need support from almost every Republican member to pass. Finally, the Senate must approve an identical budget resolution before the committees can begin crafting individual pieces of an eventual reconciliation bill.
Key contracts terminated at the Institute for Education Sciences
On Monday, the Trump Administration canceled nearly $900M in contracts supporting the functions of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). IES is an independent research agency within the Department of Education (ED) that houses the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and funds research on improving educational outcomes by evaluating interventions.
NCES is ED’s statistical agency and is responsible for collecting, cleaning, and disseminating aggregate results from key higher education data collections, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS), and key longitudinal surveys like Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS). NCES has long relied on contracted research organizations to service these data collections, through conducting surveys, managing web-based reporting portals, cleaning data, and aggregating data to be publicly available to stakeholders. Reports indicate that 89 contracts have been canceled, including key contracts related to NPSAS and BPS and basic support functions for NCES staff.
The Trump Administration has affirmed that they will be maintaining key consumer-facing tools, including the College Scorecard and College Navigator. Both tools are populated with IPEDS data, so IPEDS will likely be maintained as well, although decreased capacity and contract disruptions may mean service interruptions to the reporting portal, delayed staff responses to questions or issues, and delays in publishing data collections. The fate of IPEDS Technical Review Panels (TRP), which convene stakeholders and data experts to improve IPEDS collections, is unclear.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is closely following how IES contract changes will impact our colleges. We will continue to communicate the importance of maintaining the current IPEDS web-based reporting portal and ensuring that the IPEDS reporting – mandated by the Higher Education Act (HEA) – is as consistent and reliable a process as possible.
This week in Congressional hearings
On Wednesday, February 12, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-ED) hosted a hearing titled “Career Ready Students: Innovations from Community Colleges and the Private Sector.” Witnesses included Dr. Vicki Karolewics, President of Wallace State Community College, Preston Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Mary Alice McCarthy, Director of New America’s Center on Education & Labor, and Dennis Parker from Toyota Motor North America’s Regional Talent Development team.
As reported by AACC’s Matthew Dembicki in the Community College Daily, the hearing highlighted workforce development initiatives at community colleges, including pathways programs in in-demand fields, earn-and-learn programs, apprenticeships, and short-term workforce programs that propel students into good jobs. Many panelists and members alike shared their support for expanding Pell Grants to help cover high-quality, short-term workforce education programs.
Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer was scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) committee for her confirmation hearing to serve as Secretary of Labor. The hearing has been delayed to February 19, citing snowy weather in Washington, D.C.
As of this writing, the Senate HELP Committee is currently holding the confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education. The AACC team will have more information on her hearing in next week’s Advocacy Quick Hits.
Trump Administration names key Department of Education roles
On Wednesday, the Trump Administration announced that they have tapped Nicholas Kent to serve as Under Secretary of Education – the Department of Education’s top higher education policymaker. Kent previously served as Deputy Secretary of Education for the state of Virginia, after serving as Chief Policy Officer at the Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), the trade association representing proprietary colleges. Kent is a known player in the higher education policy space and has been highly engaged in conversations around federal higher education data and accountability.
In the same announcement, the Administration named Kevin O’Farrell to serve as Assistant Secretary for Career and Technical Education. O’Farrell currently serves as Chancellor for the Division of Career and Technical Education for the Florida Department of Education.
Finally, Mary Christina Riley has been named Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs, after a long tenure as a professional staff member at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce under then-Chair Dr. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) where she focused on higher education issues.