With the presidential and congressional elections on the horizon, the 114th Congress has limited legislative calendar days to consider and pass legislation. On the docket will be must-pass bills, such as the federal appropriations bills, as well as legislation that can garner strong bipartisan support and move quickly. One area of strong bipartisan support is the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. Since the creation of the act, Career and Technical Education (CTE) has remained a perennial favorite among many members of Congress. The recent economy-driven emphasis on the intersection of higher education and more skills-based workforce training has only increased the interest and support for CTE.

The Perkins Act was first authorized in 1984 with the goal of expanding and modernizing federal support for vocational and technical education at the secondary and postsecondary level. Today, the Perkins Act provides $1.1 billion in state grants that support CTE efforts at secondary and postsecondary institutions. States ultimately determine how that funding will be split between secondary and postsecondary recipients; however, on average across the country secondary institutions receive a greater share of funds. Some states such as Washington, though, allocate the majority of funds to higher education instead of secondary schools.

The Perkins Act is of particular importance because it provides institutional support for many community colleges. As opposed to funding received from federal student aid, community colleges may use Perkins funding to support a range of activities, including academic instruction, student support, curriculum development, purchasing equipment, scaling CTE programs, and building stronger links between institutions and industry.

The Perkins Act is due for a reauthorization to revise and update the current law, as the last reauthorization occurred over 10 years ago. The House of Representatives has made significant strides in moving forward with a bipartisan reauthorization, while the Senate is also working on a bill of its own.

Community College Priorities for Perkins Reauthorization

ACCT, in collaboration with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), has developed reauthorization recommendations for Perkins reauthorization. The joint priorities include:

• Supporting highly effective CTE programs by emphasizing the importance of strong connections between Perkins recipients and the local, regional, and statewide businesses and industries that they serve;

• Creating strong pathways for students of all types to attain fundamental educational skills and a postsecondary degree or industry recognized credential, including emphasizing the need to support programs that are designed for adult students as well as those that have a direct link to high school CTE programs;

• Transforming Title II of the Perkins Act into a program focused on building CTE and workforce training capacity at community colleges, similar to the Community-Based Job Training Grants program followed by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant program; and

• Streamlining and providing better alignment the Perkins Act with other federal education programs and more closely aligning with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) with a particular focus on program completion, retention, and the employment outcomes of program completers.

House Bill

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently passed its version of the Perkins Act reauthorization, H.R. 5587, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. This six-year authorization, which received strong bipartisan support, reforms and modernizes some areas of the current law, but retains the current structure of the law.

Under H.R. 5587, the overall federal-tostate and state-to-local funding allocation formulas remain the same as exist in current law. The House bill authorizes a gradual increase in funding for the basic state grants over the next several years, bringing the authorization level to just over $1.2 billion. The bill seeks to align the Perkins Act more closely with other federal education and workforce training programs and streamlines the state and local application process. It also implements a biennial needs assessment to determine how CTE programs are serving students and meeting local economic needs. The needs assessment also will further engage business, industry, and community stakeholders in the planning process. The House bill updates existing accountability measures relying on four core indicators that are more closely aligned with the indicators under WIOA.

What’s Next?

The Senate has been working on its ownbipartisan legislation but has not releaseda bill. The Senate could decide to use theHouse bill to expedite a reauthorization,but the clock is ticking. The most likelyscenario is for the House and Senate to consider the reauthorization of the Perkins Act in the 115th Congress next year, using the previous work to frame the next reauthorization.

While ACCT works in Washington to support reauthorization of the Perkins Act, community college advocates also need to voice the need for support to their federally elected officials. This is an important request, as it is estimated that by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school. Additional resources are needed for community colleges to meet the increased workforce demands within their communities.

ACCT continues to monitor and work with Congress and the Administration as it reauthorizes the Perkins Act. We encourage trustees, presidents, and other advocates at your college to use ACCT’s online policy center to communicate with your members of Congress, and follow federal legislative updates through the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) email alerts and the Capitol Connection e-newsletter. To sign up for LAW alerts, email publicpolicy@acct.org.