Federal Updates
- Secretary DeVos testified before the House Education and Labor Committee and answered questions on the president’s FY20 budget request, arming teachers, school choice, and other issues.
- The House Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee plans to mark up the Department of Education’s FY20 spending bill on April 30 with a tentative full committee markup scheduled for May 8.
- On April 10, the Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security, Kathryn Laren, testified to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. The Government Accountability Office released the testimony titled, “Child Nutrition: Observations on USDA Actions to Improve Program Integrity and Address Improper Payments.”
- The federally appointed panel of negotiators tasked with reviewing the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed draft rules around accreditation and innovation in higher education reached an agreement. The consensus package of rules:
- Loosens restrictions on accreditors
- Includes proposed changes to federal distance education standards regarding faculty and student interaction
- Provides a fix to the TEACH grant program that allows teachers whose grants were converted to loans to appeal those decisions
- The House passed the CLASS Act for School Safety on April 1. The bill directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a council to coordinate activities, plans, and policies of the Department aimed at bolstering school security against acts of terrorism, an active shooter, and other threats.
Read more on education policy on the McGuireWoods Consulting website.