FTF: An Extension for Higher Ed Act

For my first “From the Files” Tuesday article for February 2016, I wanted to share with you my fellow anti CCSS Warriors how a bill was passed in late 2015, we more than likely had no clue passed. What does this have to do with Common Core? Plenty! It extended portions of the HEA (Higher Education Act)!

For quite sometime I have been helping raise awareness about the HEA and have given you plenty of evidence which easily connects the HEA to the CCSS Machine (Common Core State Standards Machine). The main connection?! Career Tech Education (CTE)! How this connect to the picture you see above? Perkins Funding!

For a quick recap about Perkins Funding, here is an excerpt from one of my previously published detailed articles, “The Perkins Act was created back in 1984, since then it’s been updated a few times. However, the original intent was to increase the quality of education that was considered technical or, at the time, vocational. With the advent of Common Core via the Career Tech, Career Clusters, Career Pathways, it’s not longer ‘cool’ to use the word ‘vocation’, now it’s ‘career’. Last updated in 2006 here are the 3 parameters that MUST happen with the Act.:
“1. Replaces “vocational education” with “career and technical education”
2. Maintains the Tech Prep program as a separate entity with federal funding within the legislation
3. Maintains state administrative funding at 5 percents of a state’s allocation
The new law also requires the development of articulation agreements and strengthens local
accountability provisions. The Perkins Act provides almost $1.3 billion annually to career and technical education programs in all 50 states until 2016.’ Each state gets to decide how to split the funding between secondary schools and post-secondary schools.”

To see the rest of the article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/11/20/tech-thursday-perkins-gets-the-common-core-squeeze/

What you need to know that is still relevant:
1) The Perkins Funds used in higher education are based on the number of children aged 5 to 17 years old in each LEA (local education agency). You will also see how there are other ways the funding is based on (for example, one way is in conjunction with groups of States {as in the United States} working together).

2) From just last month, I was able to connect more intended misuse of Perkins Funding in the State of NC via an upcoming bond that is to be on our primary ballots March 15, 2016. How? The bond, known as “Connect NC Bond”, shows you how at least one NC Community College would take its bond money and use it NOT for its intended purpose (update buildings), BUT to purchase and provide MORE Career Tech Education courses! See the article:
 https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/01/11/winter-2016-a-look-ahead-nc-and-the-usa/

3) From December 2015, this excerpt where Perkins Funding for CTE is embedded in the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), “Keywords of ‘Perkins Funding’ (for CTE): a total of 8 references to page numbers 38, 123, 132, 516, 677, 939, 993, and 1026.”
To see the rest of that article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/12/05/weekend-news-essas-untold-ties-to-hea/

 

An Extension Does NOT Mean a Re-authorization, Does It?

For quite a while now, I have been sharing in my interviews heard nationally that the HEA is usually re-authorized near the time the original ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) is. We know the ESSA is the re-authorization of the ESEA, but does the Bill for the Extension of the HEA mean that is IT’S re-authorization? No. The Extension simply continued the stream of Perkins Funding. It is only 4 pages long, as well. But, before we leave each other for today, what are the ‘other purposes’ embedded in the Extension?

*Note: The latest re-authorization of the HEA was back in 2008.

1) The first item of business(after the Title description) in the HEA Extension is NOT the Perkins money. (That is, in fact, the second item of business.) The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and its Extension.
What does the NACIQI do?
Per the 2008 version of the HEA, this group follows the recommendations of the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Secretary in both accreditation and requirements for higher educational institutions to meet and uphold in order to receive funding. If you want to learn more about their powers, see:  http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/naciqi.html

While this, on the surface, appears to be on the up and up, remember how many articles I have shared with you about the ways in which the HEA will be rewritten to further the CCSS Machine’s Workforce agenda. By holding the institutions which deliver higher education to the tentacles of the CCSS/CTE and now, the College/Career Readiness (CCR), you can know that when the HEA is re-authorized, this group will be sure to apply all the CCSS Machine’s nuts and bolts it can. To see some of what I am referring to:
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/11/tech-thursday-more-alexander-hea-and-the-next-america/

2) This is where the Perkins Funding Extension comes into play.

3) Following Perkins is the Extension of the Advisory Committee for Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA). If you visit the website page for ACSFA you will see that the lapse in government funding halted operations back in October 2015. See: http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/acsfa/index.html

If we want to find out what the ACSFA did (or perhaps has been able to pick back up and continue on with), we will need to go back to August 2015. Here is an excerpt, “The Advisory Committee serves as an independent source of advice and counsel to the Congress and the Secretary of Education on student financial aid policy.” The description goes on to say the Committee is to be non partisan, objective, and independent. Back in 2008, when the HEA was last updated, you need to see what functions this Committee had impact on. (For example, Title 4 funding.) Not sure what Title 4 Funds are? See below:

To learn more from the August 2015 ACSFA meeting: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/08/25/2015-20946/advisory-committee-on-student-financial-assistance-meeting

Have Title 4 Funds Been Aligned to CCSS/CTE/CCR?

In my previously published article title “Dependent Truth”, I direct you to a possible answer there. In the research I have been able to find, I would say the short answer is yes, the funding is aligned. It is part of a vicious cycle our students are being put through, thanks the CCSS Machine. How? Consider how early in a student’s education we are seeing Career Tech Education creep in. Consider how many CCSS/CTE courses students must complete to earn credits to graduate. Consider how many schools are starting the FASFA process early. In order to complete the FASFA forms (Financial Student Aid), many states are requiring certain courses to be completed as part of graduation. The connection? Look at your State to see how many of these are CCSS/CTE or College and Career Ready ones.
To see the ‘Dependent Truth’: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/01/12/ftf-a-dependent-truth/

To see the Federal Financial Aid’s ’12th Grade Checklist’:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/prepare-for-college/checklists/12th-grade
While this may look okay on the surface, note that it is using the cost of college as a reason to complete FASFA paperwork in the 12th grade. Note the need for discussing your career path with the school counselor. Where is the CCSS/CTE connection there? School counselors (as I have shared in the past) are being increasingly ‘encouraged’ to guide students to a Career Pathway (another catchy name for Career Tech Education) way of existence. See my article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/10/fridays-post-breaking-news-you-need-to-know/
*Note: be sure to view the White House Initiative presentation expressly for school counselors and their alignment to the CCSS Machine!

To see the HEA Extension Bill:
bill_text_higher_education_extension_act_of_2015

To see the Press Release the Education and Workforce Committee issued in December 2015: http://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400072

Closing:

Warriors Against the CCSS Machine, keep alert, the re-authorization of the HEA will certainly need our full attention when it does happen.

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