Federal Updates
- The approved House of Representatives’ FY2020 appropriations bills included $260 million in dedicated funding for social emotional learning. Of this package, $170 million would go to grants for research into evidence-based interventions, $25 million to the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant program, $40 million to the Full-Service Community Schools Program, and $25 million to bolster school safety.
- U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos repealed the “gainful employment” rule, an Obama administration directive that required career and certificate programs to prove that graduates were securing remunerative (or gainful) employment in order to qualify for federal financial aid. U.S. Department of Education officials said that repealing the rule would allow them to focus on transparency instead of regulation and hold all postsecondary programs accountable for their results.
- Reps. Cedric Richmond and Anthony Gonzalez introduced the bipartisan Jumpstart Our Businesses By Supporting Students (JOBS) Act. The bill would expand Pell Grant eligibility to cover short-term workforce training programs. Senators Tim Kaine and Rob Portman introduced a similar bill in the Senate in March.
- The Senate confirmed (56-37) Robert L. King to serve as Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. He has been working at the Department of Education as a Senior Advisor since last year.
Read more on education policy on the McGuireWoods Consulting website.