NAPE Summary of February 15, 2005,
 hearing on perkins reauthorization

The House Subcommittee on Education Reform took its next step in the reauthorization of Perkins by holding a hearing on H.R. 366—the Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act. Chairman Michael Castle (R-DE) opened the hearing by noting the importance of career technical education and the interest by the Committee to complete the work it began on Perkins last year. In her opening remarks, Ranking Member Congresswoman Woolsey (D-CA) stated that this bill was a demonstration of the Committee’s ongoing commitment to bipartisanship. Also in attendance were Representatives Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Susan Davis (D-CA), Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), Tom Osborne (R-NE), and Robert Scott (D-VA).

The witnesses included: Dr. Lewis Atkinson III, State Director of Delaware; Dr. Joanna Kister, an educational consultant and former State Director of Ohio; Dr. Patrick Ainsworth, State Director of California; Emily Simons, a CTE student from Eastern Technical School in Baltimore, Maryland; and Russ Moore, the CEO of Central Educational Center (a public CTE focused charter school) in Georgia.

The witnesses each focused their testimony on a few key concepts:

Dr. Lewis Atkinson III:

• The transformation of Delaware’s CTE system from a shared-time system of regional technical centers to full time CTE high schools.

• Support for H.R. 366’s new accountability provisions and the importance of data-driven decisions.

• Support for and the necessity of increasing, not decreasing state administration funds, including raising the small state administration from $250,000 to $500,000.

 Dr. Joanna Kister:  

• Support for H.R. 366’s focus on accountability requirements, stating that good data is an integral part of a high performing school system because it provides information on the areas of weakness and strength, thus allowing for a continuous improvement plan.

• Support for the development of technical assessments. She noted that the implementation of model sequences of courses will be advanced more quickly and will be more effective with the availability of technical assessments.

• Support for the simplification of funding streams by aligning tech prep with the basic state grant; she also cautioned that this step should not result in a loss of funding.

• Support for the model sequence of courses concept as a framework of instruction and a vehicle to improve the transition between secondary and post secondary education.

• Support for adequately funding state administration; Dr. Kister shared the value that local administrators and programs place on strong state leadership.

Dr. Patrick Ainsworth:

• Support for a balanced Integration of academic and technical instruction.

• Support for a restoration of state administration funds, noting a reduction in funds will result in a significant loss of direct support to schools and students and make it virtually impossible to meet all the mandated requirements.

• Support for a continued focus to serve special populations noting that California has a long held tradition of serving special populations. They annually set aside an allotment from their Perkins leadership funds for programs providing staff development and technical assistance related to special populations. As partners with the community colleges, they have established a California Joint Special Populations Advisory Committee to guide these efforts.

• Requested flexibility in maintenance of effort requirements to allow a ten percent variation.

• Support for the principles of tech prep and mainstreaming of these principles into the basic state grant.

Ms. Emily Simons:

• Articulated her experience as a CTE program, highlighting that the perception of CTE being for those ‘kids not going to college’ was not true.

• CTE creates options and inspires confidence in students.

• CTE gave her a leg up on her career and that she already has post secondary credit because of her CTE program of study.

• Support for H.R. 336 as a means to support additional programs, like her allied health program.

Mr. Russ Moore:

• CTE helps students stay in school.

• Moore’s school has strong data that highlights CTE’s value and contribution in increasing student academic performance.

• Support for separate career technical education legislation.

• Support the continued focus on integration of academic and technical education.

Analysis: The environment of the hearing was very positive and supportive of CTE. During the question and answer period, several members (both Democrats and Republicans) asked the witnesses to talk about the impact of the President’s budget proposal, including what would be lost if Perkins went away. Put another way, Congressman Andrews’ (D-NJ) said that the panel was “preaching to the choir.” He and Congresswoman Davis (D-CA) noted that the burden of proof is on us to show the effectiveness of CTE; it is especially to have research and data to respond to the Office of Management and Budget’s PART assessment that found CTE ineffective.

Congresswoman Woolsey (D-CA) questioned what impact a 60% reduction in state administration funds would have on CTE programs across the country, and stated she too wished for the state administration level to remain at 5%. Chairman Castle (R-DE) later made an off-the-cuff comment that he expected that ‘they’ would likely concede on the state administration issue. That is a great signal (but not a guarantee) that when the House and Senate bills get to conference, the 5% for state administration will prevail.

Congressman Hinojosa (D-TX) asked Dr. Ainsworth to tell the subcommittee more about the California Joint Special Populations Committee and its work. Dr. Ainsworth emphasized the importance of the collaboration between secondary and postsecondary in this area and how successful the committee had been at continuing to keep this issue on the agenda of local schools. He stated “I think many people thought that after the elimination of the setasides in 1998 that this issue would just fade away. Well it hasn’t in California and much of that has been due to the work of the Committee". Dr. Ainsworth emphasized the importance of continuing the accountability provisions, strengthening the local accountability process and continuing to focus on providing services to special populations and students pursuing nontraditional careers.

Later during the question and answer session, Congresswoman Woolsey (D-CA) asked about how schools were doing in maintaining gender balance in CTE programs. She took the opportunity to plug her “Go Girls” legislation. Both Dr. Ainsworth and Dr. Atkinson said that there continues to be programs in their states where gender equity is an problem and that they feel it is important to be vigilant on this issue.

On the issue of technical assessments, Chairman Castle (R-DE) stated his support but was finding it difficult to come up with a reasonable way to measure technical proficiency given all the specific occupations that exist. Dr. Kister responded noting the possibility of the creation of cluster foundation assessments.

The hearing concluded as Chairman Castle restated his support for CTE, his willingness for the witnesses and the community to offer input on H.R. 366 and his desire to see this bill passed quickly through the House.

Next Steps: Unconfirmed rumors are that the House plans to mark up H.R. 366 in early March, with the goal of completing work on the legislation before the end of March recess.