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Federal Government
With the election over, the Administration and Congress
are immediately focusing on the economy--the budget and taxes in
particular.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 began on October 1, but none of the 12
appropriations bills has passed. To keep the government running, on
September 22, Congress approved a "continuing resolution"
(CR), which funds the government until March 2013.
On November 9, President Barack Obama noted that he invited
congressional leaders to the White House the week of November 12 to
begin negotiations over the fiscal cliff-spending cuts and tax
increases amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars in budget
adjustments. Obama stated that the election results provided support
for higher taxes for the wealthy and called for the immediate
extension of middle class tax cuts. "I'm open to compromise. I'm
open to new ideas. I'm committed to solving our fiscal challenges,
but I refuse to accept any approach that isn't balanced," Obama
said.
The elections left the country with a familiar scenario--Republicans
maintained control over the House (233 Republicans, 195 Democrats),
with the Democrats in control of the Senate (53 Democrats, 45
Republicans) and the White House.
There is still a lot of debate about tax increases. Both parties have
demonstrated a willingness to start the discussion before the
across-the-board rate increases go into effect if the Bush-era tax
cuts are allowed to expire at the end of the year.
Recently, the Office of Management and Budget at the White House
released a new report that examines how federal funding might be
impacted by sequestration. Without congressional intervention,
sequestration is scheduled to go into effect on January 2, 2013.
According to the report, all non-defense discretionary programs that
are not exempt from sequestration will be cut 8.2 percent. For
example, Perkins would lose approximately $92 million in FY 2013.
Learn More;
Also see "News from Our Partners" below.
Congress
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) recently introduced the STEM Education
Opportunity Act (H.R. 6325), bipartisan
legislation which would provide tax benefits for those paying for
higher education in a STEM field.
In September, Rep. Michael Honda (CA-15) introduced the Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Network Act of 2012.
This bill champions science, technology, engineering, and mathematic
educational initiatives that teach and train a dynamic, competitive
workforce and bolster America's position as a global leader in
innovation. Specifically, it seeks to bridge the educational
opportunity gap by providing experiences for students to build STEM
competencies. The STEM Network Act will further build private-public
partnerships and increase STEM educational opportunities in
communities nationwide.
NAPE Meetings
On October 24, NAPE
and its partners in the National Coalition
for Girls and Women in Education (NCGWE) Career
and Technical Education Task Force met with the Department of
Education Office of Vocational
and Adult Education (OVAE) to discuss the CTE
Blueprint. OVAE released the Blueprint in April 2012 and is in the
process of creating a plan to implement the Blueprint. The meeting
focused heavily on equity issues, which OVAE has been emphasizing in
its implementation plan. NAPE and NCGWE will continue to stay
involved in these discussions.
News from Our Partners
On October 18, ACTE
joined with nearly 30 national business, education, policy and
philanthropic organizations to support a common statement on career
readiness. Building Blocks for
Change: What It Means to Be Career Readyhelps
to define what it means to be career ready in the 21st century.
As you will recall, NAPE signed on to an amicus brief
from the National Women's Law
Center, 1 of more than 50 briefs supporting
diversity and the University of Texas in the Fisher v. University of
Texas at Austin (UT) case. On October 12, the Supreme Court
heard the case. Fisher claims she was denied admission to UT due to
an admissions policy that considers race. Fisher will have major
implications on racial preferences in admissions to public colleges
and universities. It is the first federal appellate challenge to the
Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger. Grutter v. Bollinger
affirmed the University of Michigan's law school's affirmative action
program and held diversity is a compelling interest for public
universities and that race can be used as a factor in admissions.
The Career Readiness
Partner Council was formed in 2012 and is
coordinated by the National Association of State Directors of Career
Technical Education Consortium. The Council's goal is to enhance
reform efforts around college and career readiness to include a more
comprehensive understanding of what it means to be career ready. The
Council's statement, Building Blocks For Change: What it Means to be
Career Ready, states that career readiness is a process of connecting
"education and employment to achieve a fulfilling,
financially-secure and successful career." They note that career
readiness must foster "adaptability and a commitment to lifelong
learning, along with a mastery of key knowledge, skills and
dispositions that vary from one career to another and change over
time."
The National Skills Coalition did an analysis
of the state-level impact of sequestration on workforce
programs.
Other News
Opportunity
Nation, a bipartisan, cross-sector national campaign which is focused
on expanding economic opportunity and closing the opportunity gap in
the U.S., created a shared plan and held a summit. The organization
has developed a plan
which includes eight strategies, several which are directly focused
or linked to career and technical education. The summit
was held on September 19, 2012, at The George Washington University.
The Center for
American Progress released a workforce study, The Competition that
Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese, and Indian Investments in
the Next-Generation Workforce.
Change the Equation
released the 2012 STEM Vital
Signs, which provides state and national data on
the demand for STEM skills and knowledge, student achievement in
STEM, academic standards and expectations, access to STEM skills and
knowledge, teacher preparation, and school support. The report
provides data that teachers, administrators, and others can customize
and use to advocate and support the teaching and learning of
science/STEM in schools/districts/states.
The National Alliance
for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) is a national,
nonprofit consortium of state and local agencies, corporations, and
national organizations that collaborate to create equitable and
diverse classrooms and workplaces where there are no barriers to
opportunities. Through its Education Foundation, NAPE has been involved
in a number of initiatives to increase diversity in America's
workforce and to increase opportunities in high-skill, high-wage,
high-demand careers. Among these is the National Science
Foundation-funded STEM Equity Pipeline
Project, which works with educational systems to increase the
participation of underrepresented populations in STEM education.
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