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April 1, 2022 - NSBA Weekly Update

Congressional Update

President Biden Releases FY23 Budget Request
On Monday, March 28, President Biden sent his administration’s Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) budget request to Congress. The $5.8 trillion budget proposal would provide a nearly 21% increased investment in the U.S. Department of Education (USED)—a total that would equate to $15.3 billion in additional funding for the agency and the programs it oversees and administers. Significantly, the request proposes a roughly $3 billion increase for Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act. In addition to this proposed 17% increase in Title I funding, the budget request seeks significant increases for other key programs such IDEA Parts B (state formula grants), C (infants and toddlers), and D (educators), Teacher Quality Partnership grants, and CTE national activities.  

While these proposals are encouraging, this budget request was developed and published before Congress enacted final full-year funding for the previous federal fiscal year (FY22). Because of this timing, several funding requests in the budget proposal fall below total funding provided by Congress last month. USED has termed these “artificial cuts” and reiterated that the agency supports enacted FY22 funding levels. The full FY23 USED budget summary can be found here and more detailed justifications for individual requests can be found here. 

NSBA’s advocacy team plans to work with partners on Capitol Hill this year to ensure a robust investment for K-12 education is made a reality as part of the FY23 budget and appropriation process. 

Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Nutrition Waiver Extension Bill
Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a bill - the Support Kids Not Red Tape Act (S.3979) - to extend the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s school meal flexibilities from June 30, 2022, to September 30, 2023. 50 senators have signed-on as cosponsors to the bill. NSBA strongly supports this legislation and will work closely with the sponsors and our national partners to urge its passage.  NSBA joined with a coalition of other organizations in February supporting extension of these meal flexibilities in a letter to Capitol Hill.

Administration Update

Cardona Encourages States to Use ARP Funding to Address Teacher Shortages
Also on Monday, March 28, the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called on education stakeholders to make use of funding provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to address persistent and widespread teacher shortages. Cardona urged states, postsecondary leaders, districts, and schools to consider establishing evidence-based teacher residency programs, creating registered apprenticeship programs for the teaching profession, and increasing teacher compensation along with a slew of other proposals. The full announcement can be found here. 

U.S. Department of Education Webinar on Addressing Teacher Shortages
The U.S. Department of Education is convening a webinar on Thursday, April 7, 2022, from 3:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern, on “Strengthening Partnerships Between States, School Districts, and Higher Education to Increase the Number of Teacher Candidates Prepared to Enter the Classroom and Provide Immediate Support to Schools.” You can register for this webinar here: 
https://ed-gov.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_yTeL4cAcRV6WJon02nVjCQ.

The webinar will discuss ways that states, institutions of higher education, and school districts can utilize American Rescue Plan and other federal relief funds to help address teacher shortages; share how federal relief funds and opportunities through the U.S. Department of Labor are being used to address teacher shortages and provide support to schools by establishing or scaling up teaching residency and apprenticeship programs; provide examples from states increasing their investments in a diverse educator pipeline; and highlight educator preparation programs at institutions of higher education that are partnering with districts to leverage their residency and apprenticeship programs to provide immediate support to schools.

Discretionary Grants

USED published notice on a discretionary grant program for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services:  Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities – National Center for Improving Teacher and Leader Professions to Better Serve Children with Disabilities – The Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities program is focused on preparing personnel for work in special education, early intervention, and regular education to work with students with disabilities. The National Center  created through this grant program will focus on high-quality instruction in institutions of higher education for teacher candidates; recruitment and retention of educators; as well as alignment of preparation systems to improve outcomes for students with disabilities, among other expectations. The department plans to use a total of $3,500,000 for this competition, out of a total of $90,200,000 requested for the Personnel Development program. Applications are due by May 31, 2022, and further information is available here. 

NSBA Bills

NSBA Update

NSBA Advocacy staff are at Annual Conference in San Diego where we are staffing delegate assemble and presenting breakout sessions. 

NSBA currently has an active Call to Action on the educator shortage.  If you wish to participate, text EDUCATOR SHORTAGE to 52886 to contact your U.S. Senators to urge their co-sponsorship and support for the Preparing and Retaining Education Professionals (PREP) Act (S. 2244).

- Courtesy of NSBA's Federal Advocacy & Public Policy Update - Week of April 1, 2022

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