FY 2025 appropriations – Government funding expires in 10 days and so far, there is no agreement on a bill to continue funding. House Republicans hope to have a bill ready by this weekend that will extend funding for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2025 at FY 2024 levels, with notable exceptions. They hope to pass it on the House floor early next week and then send it to the Senate before current funding expires after midnight on Friday, March 14. However, it’s not clear that Republicans have the votes needed to bring a full-year extension to the House floor or to pass it, since some hardline conservatives want deep spending cuts and oppose what they characterize as continuing Biden-era funding levels. Democrats prefer to pass a shorter extension of funding to give just enough time to work out new bills for the remaining 6 ½ months of this fiscal year, but since Appropriations leaders haven’t yet been able to agree on total defense and non-defense spending or on any new policy riders to include, that outcome seems unlikely. We’ll see this play out day by day.
Linda McMahon confirmed as Education Secretary, Executive Order to dismantle Department expected soon – Yesterday the Senate confirmed Linda McMahon to be Secretary of Education (ED) by a party line vote of 51-45. Secretary McMahon is reportedly planning to send ED staff an email about the Administration’s plan to issue an Executive Order eliminating ED. A reporter posted what is purported to be an excerpt from the Secretary’s email noting that the executive order requires ED “to identify which of the Department’s functions, programs, and offices not mandated by statue, and eliminate them” and to give Congress a roadmap of “a plan to reallocate and reassign functions of the department of Education that would be more effectively managed by other agencies.” The law creating the Department in 1979, PL 96-88, lists the authority and limitations of the Department and explicitly creates an Office for Civil Rights, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and several others. The Secretary may reorganize offices but only to the extent that the program was not created by statute. Several education laws specifically require programs to be within the Department of Education, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which is why ED cannot be eliminated unless Congress passes new laws changing the underlying statutes.
AACTE and NCTR file lawsuit challenging ending of ED’s teacher training grants – Yesterday, CEF members the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) and the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) filed a lawsuit challenging ED’s termination of more than 100 grants for educator preparation under the Teacher Quality Partnership, Supporting Effective Educator Development, and Teacher and School Leader Incentive programs.