Survival of the Fittest Status of Federal Education

Survival of the Fittest Status of Federal Education Legislation Julia Martin, Esq. jmartin@bruman. com Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC Spring Forum 2015

Agenda Congressional Priorities ESEA Higher Education Perkins Early Education Child Nutrition Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 2

Congressional Priorities Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 3

What’s Next? Joint op-ed from Boehner/Mc. Connell in November lists priorities as: Simplify tax code Reduce spending by revising entitlement programs and other drivers of debt Legal reforms, including medical malpractice Regulatory Education reforms 4

What are education priorities? Reform federal involvement in education through: Expanding Reducing charter school access college costs FAST Act reintroduced on 2 nd day of new Congress Reforming H. R. 5) K-12 education by: (mostly part of Revamping teacher evaluations Giving States/districts more control over use of federal funds Increasing Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC school choice options 5

Where does education fit in? How to determine what is a priority? Time Legislation Bill number Overall in Congress, education not a top priority Instead, focus is on: “Must-pass” legislation Vote-generating legislation Emergent crises (or “crises”) Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 6

ESEA Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 7

ESEA Progress For House/Senate Committees, ESEA is reauthorization priority #1 Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Discussion draft released, hearings began mid-January Alexander-Murray bill released in early April, markup in mid- April House Committee on Education and the Workforce Student Success Act (H. R. 5) introduced early February, approved by Committee February 11 th No Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC hearings – building on debate in 113 th Congress 8

Problems on House Floor Set for vote last week of February, but bill was pulled from schedule before final vote Vote scheduled for same day as Homeland Security funding bill Objections from conservative Republican groups: Not enough of a departure from NCLB Too tolerant of Common Core Not enough flexibility for States/districts too prescriptive Did not allow Title I portability funds to be used at private schools 9 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

Remaining Hurdles Busy House/Senate schedule Other legislative priorities Democratic opposition From within Congress and from President/administration Concerns about “walking back” accountability/ civil rights Concerns Republican opposition Opposition groups Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC about funding/portability from conservative Reps. , action 10

Where to go from here? Two choices (assuming Senate Passes bill): House passes Senate bill (or vice versa) Then Senate passes revised version with any House amendments, sends to President for signature House and Senate meet in “conference” to work out differences between bills Final compromise legislation must be passed by House and Senate, then sent to President for signature Both options complicated by House problems in passing bill Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 11

Likely Contents of ESEA Reauthorization What’s Definitely Out AYP Instead: States design and implement plans for intervention and improvement Requirement to adopt specific college- and careerready standards Instead: Race leaves standards and assessments up to States to the Top (and i 3) Instead: Teacher focus on formula funding (and budget-cutting) evaluations, HQT Instead: Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC focus on State licensure/training/PD 12

Likely Contents of ESEA Reauthorization What’s Title Definitely In I structure, formula Charter Focus school grants on States with laws more open to charters Limitation on Secretarial waiver, decisionmaking authority Funding flexibility between Titles II and IV Consolidation of some programs/titles Supplement, not supplant (but some changes) Maintenance of effort (may change? ) 13 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

ESEA Flashpoints Appropriations House bill, Senate discussion draft would limit total appropriations to FY 2015 levels Senate bill as introduced allows “such sums” as necessary White House veto threat mentioned limitation on funding as negative Assessments Senate draft included potential for allowing grade-span assessments Pressure from parent and other advocacy groups to lessen testing White House pushback, support from Democratic and Republican leadership for current requirement 14 accountability

ESEA Flashpoints Title I Portability House bill would allow States to set up systems where Title I funding follows low-income student to school of their choice White House, left-leaning advocacy groups highly critical In House floor debate, conservatives ask for even more on portability (funding for private schools) Senate bill as introduced has no portability Introduced as amendment 15 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

Higher Education Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 16

House and Senate Committee Action House Committee on Education and the Workforce Held multiple hearings in 113 th Congress on HEA reauthorization Solicited input on various topics from stakeholders No legislation drafted No action to date in 114 th Congress 17

House and Senate Committee Action Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) released “white papers” on HEA suggesting policy changes and asking for input (due April 25 th) Accreditation: Reform process to improve quality while providing accountability to “government stakeholders and taxpayers. ” Streamline accreditation regulations to: Remove those unrelated to institutional quality Permit more flexibility and gradation in reviews (no “pass-fail” determinations) De-link accreditation from eligibility for federal student aid

House and Senate Committee Action Senate Committee white papers, continued: Accountability for student borrowing and college completion “Market-based” policies and practices to make institutions share in risk of lending to student borrowers Concerns about institutions with extremely high default and/or low completion rates Suggests risk-sharing system that would require institutions to take responsibility for high borrowing amounts, high cohort default rates, and high rates of fraud 19 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

House and Senate Committee Action Senate Committee white papers, continued: Data transparency/consumer information Set policies that “enable students and families to select the college or university that best fits their needs” Review types of data collected to determine whether still necessary and valid Reduce the burden on institutions Prohibit ED from creating new accountability metrics from federal data, or from requiring new metrics, without explicit authorization from Congress? New federal student unit record system? Exceptions to federal student privacy laws to allow 20 additional data to be collected?

Likely Points of Contention Student loans/federal student aid Regulation of lenders, schools ED administration of loans/servicers Interest rates Streamlining institutional aid programs? For-profit schools Recruitment Loans Accreditation Gainful Employment regulations Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC Scope of federal involvement State authorization Student privacy 21

Perkins Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 22

Perkins Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act originally due for reauthorization in 2012 Bill introduced in Senate in June 2014 Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) Would reauthorize, promote alignment with other programs, workforce needs House Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) says Perkins will be next stop after ESEA Focus: aligning coursework to industry needs 23 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

Early Education Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 24

Early Education Administration’s plan announced in President’s 2014 State of the Union address $77 billion in subsidized universal pre-K for low/middle-income families over next decade Decreasing federal share of costs States receive funding for adopting certain quality standards Preschool Development Fund Appropriations special project in FY 2015, part of President’s request for FY 2016 25 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

Early Ed in ESEA? General effort from Democrats to make pre-K contiguous with K-12 Sen. Murray, White House want to roll into ESEA reauthorization Sen. Alexander: Early education is important but - Are current programs working optimally? Is this the time? Reauthorizing ESEA is “hard enough” Rep. Kline: Early education is important, but spending too much money each year on Head Start, CCDBG Before starting a new program, need to reevaluate current efforts Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 26

IDEA Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 27

IDEA No action to date Some technical tweaks to MOE penalty in appropriations bills Focus is on “full funding” of existing federal obligation “Full funding” = 40% of excess cost of educating students with disabilities Various bills to bring federal commitment up to that level But these initiatives stall because of cost Extremely unlikely to move before ESEA Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 28

Child Nutrition Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 29

Child Nutrition Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Expires September 30, 2015 Law and regulations continue to be controversial because of new nutrition standards for school meals Each side has research/studies supporting points Administration vowed to veto FY 2015 appropriations bill that would have weakened standards Will Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC be big fight in summer 2015! 30

Arguments on Child Nutrition School Nutrition Association (SNA), Congressional Republicans say standards are: Too expensive, too burdensome Lead to increased food waste, decreased participation White House, administration say standards are: Improving nutritional quality Expanding access Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 31

SNA Drama School Nutrition Association Multi-purpose organization Represents school nutrition professionals as lobbying group Offers industry testing/certification Acts as go-between with suppliers and school food authorities Change in leadership Under former President, organization supported new standards New President changes position, fires former lobbyists, files ethics complaint against former lobbyists Member petition against changes, are told by SNA that they are discrediting organization 32 Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC

Overall Focus continues to be on proposals that would revise large-scale bills But any efforts subject to limitations on timing, priorities from House and Senate leadership Work on examining needs, gathering input continues behind the scenes Legislators continue to introduce “marker” bills to set stage for future reauthorization Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC 33

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