Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today introduced the Dream Act of 2017, which would provide a path to legal status and eventually citizenship for people that came to this country when they were children. AACC remains strongly supportive of this important legislation. This latest incarnation of the Dream Act would confer conditional […]
House Committee Passes Funding Bill
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday passed along party lines a broad-ranging fiscal year 2018 funding bill that mirrors what its education and labor panel passed last week. The big cuts for programs affecting community colleges would include slashing $3.3 billion from the Pell Grant surplus, $86 million from job training programs and $95 million […]
House Subcommittee to Mark Up Education, Labor Funding Bill
The House Labor, HHS and Education appropriations subcommittee has released its FY 2018 appropriations bill, which it will write on July 13. Overall, the draft bill includes $156 billion in discretionary funding, $5 billion below last year’s level. With so much less funding to work with, there are numerous cuts to community college priority programs. […]
Joint AACC-ACCT Comments on GE Negotiated Rulemaking
On July 12, 2017, AACC and ACCT submitted joint comments on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed negotiated rulemaking process on gainful employment and borrower defense repayment regulations. Following a review of the comments, the Department will announce the specific topics to be addressed by the negotiated rulemaking committees as well as a request for […]
Joint AACC-ACCT FY 2018 Funding Request
AACC and ACCT sent a joint letter to the House Appropriations Committee and Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee chairs and ranking members requesting their continued funding support for key community college federal programs.
House Approves Perkins CTE Reauthorization Bill
Yesterday, the House passed by voice vote legislation reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act. On May 17, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved unanimously its bipartisan bill, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, H.R. 2353. The measure is similar to the one […]
ED Issues Guidance on Implementing Year-Round Pell Grant
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has just issued guidance on implementation of the newly reinstated year-round Pell Grant. AACC has vigorously supported reinstatement of the year-round Pell Grant since its elimination in 2011. This provision that allows students to receive up to 150% of their scheduled Pell Grant award is effective beginning with the […]
DHS Affirms DACA Program Will Remain in Effect
A June 15 Department of Homeland Security memo states that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will remain in effect. The memo, for the most part, is concerned with rescinding an Obama administration initiative for undocumented parents of citizens or legal residents and an extension of the DACA program. Neither was ever implemented […]
Trump Signs Executive Order to Expand Apprenticeship
President Trump today signed an Executive Order aimed at increasing the availability of apprenticeship programs. The order instructs a number of federal agencies to promote the growth of apprenticeships and make related federal programs more effective. Community colleges have long played a substantial role in sponsoring and providing the educational component of registered apprenticeship programs. […]
AACC Supports Legislation to Expand Pell Grants
AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus, along with ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown, has written a letter of endorsement for the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act to the House and Senate sponsors of the bill. The legislation would enhance the Pell Grant program in a number of ways long supported by AACC, […]