Secretary Duncan Goes Before the House Education and Labor Committee

In his first appearance before the House Education and Labor Committee, Arne Duncan testified in a hearing titled “The Obama Administration’s Education Agenda.” Secretary Duncan was the only witness and testified about the FY2010 proposed budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Committee Chair Congressman George Miller (D-CA) opened the hearing praising the experience and work of Duncan. He also talked about the need to address such topics as the high school dropout rate and common standards. In what has become a theme throughout the Obama Administration so far, Miller also affirmed that the President and Secretary Duncan view education as a civil right.

Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA), ranking member of the committee, followed by emphasizing priorities he thought were important to Republicans. These included having education decisions being made by parents, school districts, and states. In addition, he believes that parents should have the right to choose what school their children should attend. Also, to point out a disagreement he has with the Administration, McKeon decried the phasing out of the The D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program, which helps fund students in Washington, D. C. who want to attend private school.

As for Secretary Duncan’s testimony, he focused on the many areas of the proposed budget and the ARRA. He testified on such areas as early childhood education, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and the reorganization of the financial aid system in which the Pell Grants will no longer be part of discretionary spending but instead become mandatory spending.

Congressman Miller also stated that giving Secretary Duncan $5 billion in discretionary money in the ARRA is a “vote of confidence” by members of Congress. Specifically, he was referring to The Race to the Top program which will allow Secretary Duncan to dispense $4.35 billion to the states. He also emphasized the need for caution in the allocating of the discretionary funds.
The types of questions asked to Secretary Duncan covered a wide spectrum from such topics as special education, nutrition, and school day length. Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) was the only Congressman to ask about STEM education. Specifically, he asked if the ARRA will be used for science education and asked why the Math Science Partnerships (MSP) were cut. The Secretary said that science and math teachers need to be paid more and that teachers should be sent back to school to learn “content knowledge,” if needed. For the MSPs the Secretary still emphasized that there are more programs and opportunities now available to teachers for “professional development.”

As Congress gets closer to the process of debating and adopting a budget, the FY2010 proposed budget will surely gain more attention. In addition, as more ARRA funds are given out, they will be under more scrutiny.

View the hearing here.

NSF Budget and STEM Education

There is much to be content with in the proposed FY 2010 budget for the National Science Foundation. The proposal is $7.045 billion which is an 8.5% increase over FY 2009. However, the bulk of the increase in the budget did not occur in the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) which houses most of the NSF STEM education related funding but instead to the other directorates. For FY 2010 it is proposed that EHR receive $857.76 million, which is only a 1.5% increase over FY 2010.

Despite the nominal increase in the EHR budget, STEM education programs are still being funded. Several of them include:

“Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) (9 percent increase to $68.88 million) awardees prepare doctoral students by integrating research and education in innovative ways that are tailored to the unique requirements of newly emerging interdisciplinary fields and new career options.

Discovery Research K-12 ($108.50 million) develops more effective tools and resources for teachers and students that will support inquiry-based classroom practices and a more intensive scientifically-based assessment of the efficacy of these resources.

Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ($55.0 million) enables institutions to develop and implement programs to prepare STEM undergraduate majors--and mid-career STEM professionals--to become K-12 science and mathematics teachers.

The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program (4.6 percent decrease to $58.22 million) links K-12 teachers with their colleagues in higher education. In FY 2010, MSP will continue to build capacity and integrate the work of higher education with that of K-12 to strengthen and reform science and mathematics education. NSF estimates that in FY 2010 over 215,000 people will be directly involved in NSF programs and activities, receiving salaries, stipends, or participant support. Additionally, NSF programs indirectly impact many millions of people through activities including workshops, public outreach (including online social networking tools), informal science activities such as museums, television, videos, and journals, and dissemination of curricula and other teaching materials.” (NSF Budget Overview)

The budget proposal can be viewed here.

House Committee on Education and Labor Hears Testimony on High School Dropouts

The House Committee on Education and Labor held its second hearing on K-12 education as it prepares to address reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. This time the topic was the problem of the high school dropout rate. For witnesses, the Committee not only heard from experts from the education community but also sought expertise from four sitting Congressmen.

In his opening remarks, Committee Chair Congressman George Miller (D-CA), announced some startling facts. “Only 70 percent of students graduate with a regular high school diploma. Of these students, fewer than half graduate fully prepared for college-level work or success in the workplace.” Also, approximately 2,000 high schools produce “close to half of our students who drop out.” These high schools are often referred to as “dropout factories.”

Much of the testimony focused on the economic impact of having students drop out of high school. In his written testimony, Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former Governor of West Virginia, testified that:

“Individuals who fail to earn a high school diploma are at a great disadvantage when it comes to finding good-paying jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that in the coming years 90 percent of new high-growth, high-wage jobs will require some postsecondary education. Individuals without a high school diploma will earn significantly less than their better educated peers if they do find a job: high school dropouts earn, on average, $10,000 a year less than high school graduates. Over a lifetime, the difference between the earnings of a high school dropout and a college graduate is more than $1 million.”

Another problem concerning the dropout rate was the high level of minorities finishing high school. According to Representative Miller, “only about 55 percent of African-Americans and 52 percent of Hispanic students graduate on time.”
In a continuing theme from a prior hearing, the witnesses expressed the need for common core standards as part of a solution to eliminating the dropout rate. More fact-finding hearings from the House Education and Labor Committee can be expected as reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act draws closer.

The hearing can be watched here.

President Releases His Department of Education Budget

After much anticipation, President Obama released the details of his proposed FY 2010 budget for the federal government, including the Department of Education. The proposed discretionary budget for the Department of Education is $46.7 billion which is slightly more than the $45.4 billion the Department received in 2009. This does not include the $81.1 billion the Department received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Despite these budgetary increases, there is very little in direct funding for STEM education related programs.

In a press release to announce the budget, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated:

"This budget makes tough decisions, investing in the programs that will deliver results in student learning while ending ones that aren't working," Duncan said. "It will give educators the resources they need to turn around the schools in the most trouble, and it will build a foundation for success in school for our youngest citizens."

The one program in the budget that directly pertains to STEM education and which is also in the 2009 Triangle Coalition Legislative Platform - is the Math Science Partnerships (MSPs). The “program supports State and local efforts to improve students’ academic achievement in mathematics and science by promoting strong teaching skills for elementary and secondary school teachers, including by integrating teaching methods based on scientific based research and technology in the curriculum.” Despite the importance of the MSPs, the proposed FY 2010 funding remains the same as it was in 2008 and 2009 at $179 million.

Another program that is not directly related to STEM education but has the potential to affect STEM education is the Teacher Incentive Fund. The Fund provides financial incentives to school employees for increasing student achievement. As a result, it might be possible to place qualified STEM teachers into schools where there might now be a demand for them. The funding levels for the Fund for 2008 and 2009 were $97.3 million, but President Obama has proposed $517.3 million. So it is very obvious that President Obama has made the Teacher Incentive Fund a hallmark of his education policy.

The budget from the President is simply a proposal. Both the House and Senate must now work through the appropriating process before the President is provided with a budget he can sign into law.

House Holds Hearing on Common Standards

Recently, the House Education and Labor Committee held its first hearing of the 111th Congress dealing with the No Child Left Behind Act. The hearing did not directly address reauthorization in its entirety, but instead focused on common standards. In his prepared opening remarks, the Chairman, Representative George Miller (D-CA), demonstrated his support for common standards for all states by stating, “the unintended consequences of a system that varies from state to state is rather than striving for excellence, states are camouflaging poor performance.”

There were five witnesses from diverse backgrounds brought in before the committee to testify, but they were all there in support of common standards amongst the states. The witnesses were:

1. James B. Hunt, Jr. former Governor of North Carolina
2. Dr. Ken James, President of the Council of Chief State School Officers
3. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers
4. David Levin, Co-Founder, Kipp Schools
5. Greg Jones, Chairman of both California Business for Education Excellence and the California Business Roundtable

Each witness described their own experiences with education and the need for common standards. For instance, Governor Hunt spoke of education in terms of economics. He described how as governor he traveled abroad to increase foreign investment in the state of North Carolina. Dr James spoke of the efforts of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association to bring about common standards. President Weingarten described from a teacher and union perspective that in addition to standards, there is a need for “content-rich, sequenced curriculum and aligned assessments.” As for the Kipp Schools, David Levin said Kipp schools “administer a national, norm-referenced assessment in addition to the state assessments that their students must take.” Speaking from a business point of view with over forty years experience at the State Farm Insurance Company, Greg Jones also spoke of the need to have common standards throughout the country. He used the example of an “entry level skills test” that State Farm Insurance Company implements for all new employees regardless of where they are working.

Therefore, the common theme, in addition to the need for common standards, was that the standards must be developed by cooperation amongst the states and not developed by the federal government in a top down approach. This was a fear demonstrated by Representative Buck McKeon (R-CA), ranking member on the Education and Labor Committee. In his opening remarks, he emphasized that the “states created the federal government” and not the other way around.

Thus, there is a growing awareness of the need for common standards not just in math and language arts, but also in science and other subjects. As a result, common standards will almost surely be addressed again by Congress in the future.

No Child Left Inside Act Reintroduced

Unable to have the bill become law in the last Congress, Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD) along with 47 cosponsors in the House and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) with 13 cosponsors in the Senate introduced the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009 (Act). In reference to the Act Representative Sarbanes stated:

“We must educate our youth to be environmental stewards and grow the next generation of scientists and innovators to solve our energy and environmental challenges,”….“By preparing the next generation to meet these challenges, we will accomplish environmental, economic and national security policy objectives in one fell swoop.”

The Act sites several key findings concerning environmental education including:

“Environmental education is essential for--
(A) enhancing student learning and problem solving skills, especially in science;

(B) creating responsible and engaged citizens; and

(C) producing graduates who are prepared to address the challenges, adjustments, and opportunities that will be present in the life and the workforce of the 21st century due to threats to human health, economical development, biological diversity, and national security arising from environmental stresses.”

The Act is broken into three subsections.

1. Environmental Literacy Plans

2. Establishment of Environmental Education Professionals Development Grant Programs

3. Environmental Education Grant Program to Help Build National Capacity.

The Environmental Literacy Plans are meant to detail how students are to be taught environmental education, while the Establishment of Environmental Education Professionals Development Grant Programs is geared toward teachers and professional development. The purpose of the Environmental Education Grant Program to Help Build National Capacity is very similar to the Environmental Literacy Plans, but it also includes incorporating environmental education into the “elementary school and secondary school curricula.”

If passed, the Act would provide $100,000,000 in FY10 and again in the next four fiscal years. So far, the Act has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.