{"id":5676,"date":"2021-11-17T17:49:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T17:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2021\/11\/17\/3-ways-that-the-congressional-spending-bill-could-impact-education\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T19:50:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T19:50:08","slug":"3-ways-that-the-congressional-spending-bill-could-impact-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/3-ways-that-the-congressional-spending-bill-could-impact-education\/","title":{"rendered":"3 ways that the Congressional spending bill could impact education"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][wyde_button title=”Tell Congress to Support this Funding with Just a Few Clicks”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Education stands to win big in the U.S. Congress\u2019s social spending bill.\u00a0 After a months-long impasse, a mutually-agreed framework among lawmakers in Washington may signal an agreement on critical investments in American students as young as 3-years old to those engaged in post-secondary pursuits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the $1.75 trillion social spending bill includes investments in items as far-ranging as clean energy tax credits, an extension of the child tax credit, Medicare expansion, and housing, the bill\u2019s education-related items would invest approximately <\/span>$450 billion in the early childhood and higher education sectors<\/b>.\u00a0 This presents Congress with an opportunity to make a major investment in our future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Education Investments are Currently in the Social Spending Bill?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1. Affordable, High-Quality Child Care for Parents in the Workforce\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

The bill will limit child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income, for families earning up to 250% of state median income. It enables states to expand access to about 20 million children. To qualify, parents must be working, seeking work, in training, or taking care of a serious health issue. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.<\/span><\/p>\n

13.6% of Kentucky families<\/span><\/a> report job insecurity due to a lack of child care and Kentucky families at the end of 2020<\/span> indicated 46% have quit jobs, declined jobs, or greatly changed their jobs<\/span><\/a> due to a lack of accessible child care and early education services.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds via a Mixed Delivery System\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

The bill will expand access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children via a mixed delivery model inclusive of already existing child care and early learning centers.\u00a0 This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.<\/span><\/p>\n

A child\u2019s participation in high-quality early learning programs results in higher rates of proficiency in reading and mathematics by the third grade.\u00a0 And children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are 40% <\/span>less <\/b>likely to drop out of school and 50%<\/span> less <\/b>likely to be placed in special education.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Education Beyond High School and Workforce Development & Investments in Education Equity\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

The bill will reduce costs and expand access to education beyond high school by raising the maximum Pell grant, increasing the maximum amount to $7,000. <\/span>Pell Grants<\/span><\/a> are a critical financial aid component for students with significant financial needs. The Council for Postsecondary Education (CPE) reported that <\/span>over 50% of high school graduates in the class of 2011 had to take out a loan for their postsecondary schooling<\/span><\/a>. The Prichard Committee has advocated for<\/span> making postsecondary opportunities more affordable<\/span><\/a>. Pell Grants are one tool for Kentuckians in this endeavor.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill will also provide support to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU). Kentucky is home to two HBCUs. <\/span>Simmons College<\/span><\/a> is a private college located in Louisville. <\/span>Kentucky State University<\/span><\/a>, the state\u2019s largest HBCU, is a public university located in Frankfort.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also invests in workforce development, including community college workforce programs, sector-based training, and apprenticeships. This could work in conjunction with the recent Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) <\/span>Competitive Workforce Initiative<\/span><\/a> focused on education and training for students entering targeted sectors. This also supports CPE\u2019s <\/span>60 by 30<\/span><\/a> goal, which aligns with the <\/span>Prichard Committee Strategic Plan Goa<\/span><\/a>l of improving the number of high-quality postsecondary graduates and credentialed Kentuckians to 55% by 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

Negotiations among lawmakers in Washington are ongoing and are expected to continue through at least the next two months. <\/span>Tell our leaders in Washington to invest in the education of the commonwealth\u2019s youth!\u00a0<\/b><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][wyde_button title=”Send a message to Congress with just a few clicks!” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Foneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net%2Fpromo%2F3o0″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Education stands to win big in the U.S. Congress\u2019s social spending bill.\u00a0 After a months-long impasse, a mutually-agreed framework among lawmakers in Washington may signal an agreement on critical investments in American students as young as 3-years old to those engaged in post-secondary pursuits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ed"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6131,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions\/6131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}