14Feb

AMEA: 2017 NAfME Federal Landscape Webinar Review

Greg GuminaDear AMEA Membership,

On February 8th, there was a NAfME 2017 Federal Landscape Webinar. I have included a link to the full slide presentation on the NAfME website in this correspondence for your convenience. For those that simply want the big points, below are the highlights of the webinar.

The Presenters Lynn Tuttle-Director of Policy and Content
Ronny Lau-Policy Advisor
Tooshar Swain-Policy Advisor

President Trump’s Transition

  • Seamless in “ceremonial scale”
  • There were protests around country and a Women’s March
  • On 2/28/17 President Trump will make his first speech at a Joint Session of Congress

Expected Education Priorities and Budget Proposal

  • $20 Billion School Choice Voucher Program
  • Immediate freeze in rule making process, this is a normal transitional procedure
  • Blueprint is for a $10.5 Trillion reduction in Federal spending over 10 years
  • Most of the ideas emanate from and/or are influenced by The Heritage Foundation, and the Republican Study Committee (RSC)
  • The goals of the President’s Budget would start with Fiscal Year 2018
  • There are cuts included in the proposed budget to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for Humanities
  • Many of the Presidents’ proposed budgets have included these items as possible cuts
  • The President’s budget is largely a “wish list” that is presented to Congress
  • Only Congress has the ability to appropriate (spend) money

*Betsy DeVos

  • Recently the Director of the American Federation for Children
  • President Trump has proposed a $20 Billion Block Grant school choice program for disadvantaged children
  • Secretary DeVos is a supporter of school choice and voucher programs
  • Secretary DeVos has a history of being “pro-performing arts,” and has served on the Board of Directors at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

During the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committee Hearings, Secretary DeVos did not respond to any of the 13 questions NAfME had submitted

  • Did not expand on the implementation of ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act)
  • Didn’t seem to understand the idea that ESSA was a Federal Law, and tried to divert the responsibility to the States
  • On the HEA (Higher Education Act), Secretary DeVos only gave vague answers
  • You can find Secretary DeVos’ complete answers from the HELP Committee Hearings on the NAfME “Broader Minded Blog” (see NAfME website)
  • This is the first instance in American History that a Cabinet Member has needed the Vice President to break a tie in order to be confirmed

States are to begin submitting ESSA implementation plans in April and again in October of this year

  • Federal funds are to start rolling out this summer
  • ESSA has new limitations on the Secretary of Education (SOE) and the Department of Education (DOE) that were not present in the “No Child Left Behind” Act (NCLB)
  • Title VIII and XI of ESSA restricts the power of the SOE and the DOE
  • Secretary DeVos is “pro-Charter” and “pro-Voucher” under Title IV. However, the SOE can only support, not create and fund a Charter School or Voucher Program
  • Funding is done by Congress-largely will be done through tax code changes
  • States will mostly deal with vouchers and charters, not Federal
  • The SOE is however, able to use the “Bully Pulpit” to advocate for Arts Education
  • The SOE cannot operate outside of the law, see (ESSA) and (HEA)
  • Most Arts Education decisions are, and will continue to be, made at the Local and State level
  • Secretary DeVos cannot defund the Arts

Congressional Review Act (CRA)

  • CRA is an oversight tool for Congress and to check on Federal AgenciesCongress intends to overturn 2 items through CRA:
  • Congress intends to overturn 2 items through CRA:
    The Teacher Preparation Accountability for Education Programs language in HEA. NAfME is currently formulating a request to Congress to remove these regulations-They are too standardized, too prescriptive, and would be too costly ESSA accountability language. NAfME believes it will cause unintentional reduction of student access to music because it is heavily weighted on “tested subjects.” NAfME suggested to broaden the definition of this language to the DOE. That request was rejected.
  • CRA will originate in the House, opposed to the Senate because the Senate is still busy with confirmation hearings. Both items passed in the House on 2/7/2017 (Teacher Prep: 240-181) (ESSA Accountability 234-190)
  • Senate plans to take this issue up by the end of this month (February 2017)

On 12/9/16, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) which funds the Federal Government until 4/28/17 at Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 levels

  • Appropriation discussions for FY 2017 will resume in March or April of 2017
  • ESSA funding is currently unaffected because funds on this law don’t start rolling out until summer of 2017
  • If Congress does not resume Appropriation discussions in a timely manner, or they pass another CR for FY 2017, it could significantly complicate ESSA’s first year process because funding is currently fashioned around the old NCLB legislation.
  • See slides (link to PDF) for what NAfME’s specific dollar amount “asks” will be regarding the funding of ESSA. The “asks” will be for fulling funding the aspects of ESSA that are beneficial to Music Education.

*Perkins Career Technical Education (CTE) Reauthorization Proposals

  • NAfME is trying to introduce language that would allow Federal funding to be used in order to pioneer innovative courses such as music recording under this legislation
  • Likely to pass in a few weeks

Advocacy

  • Under the “Advocacy” tab on the NAfME website, check out:
  1. “Everything ESSA”
  2. “Rules and Regulations”
  • Music Education Policy Roundtable is a coalition of many members who all advocate for Music Education (Includes Private, Public, and Industry sectors)
  • Title IV-A may not be funded this year

Resources:

http://www.nafme.org/advocacy/grassroots-action-center/

http://broaderminded.com

Things we need to be aware of and involved in at the State level

  • State template for the consolidated state plan under the ESSA law
  • There is a link to every state’s plan on the NAfME website
  • NAfME has a resource to help align ESSA and states’ plans for its implementation

There is a 1 contact hour Professional Development credit available on this presentation

  • Login to NAfME and navigate to “archives.” You can go through the slide presentation and then take the short quiz in order to earn the credit.
  • Here is the link to the PDF for this presentation:

http://www.nafme.org/wp-content/files/2017/02/Q1-2017-Federal-Landscape-FINAL.pdf

Respectfully Submitted,
Gregory L. Gumina, President-Elect AMEA
Advocacy Chair
ggumina85@gmail.com
president_elect@myamea.org